In 2021, America experienced an unprecedented increase in cyber attacks and malicious cyber activity. These cyber attacks compromised businesses in an extensive array of business sectors as well as the American public. As the cyber threat evolves and becomes increasingly intertwined with traditional foreign intelligence threats and emerging technologies, the FBI continues to leverage our unique authorities and partnerships to impose risks and consequences on our nation’s cyber adversaries. The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) provides the American public with a direct outlet to report cyber crimes to the FBI.
This report analyzes and investigates the reporting to track the trends and threats from cyber criminals and then share this data with intelligence and law enforcement partners. The FBI recognizes how crucial information sharing of cyber activities is to prepare partners to combat the cyber threat, through a whole-of-government approach. Critical to that approach is public reporting to IC3 - enabling IC3 to fill in the missing pieces with this valuable information during the investigatory process. Not only does this reporting help to prevent additional crimes, it also allows to develop key insights on the ever-evolving trends and threats we face from malign cyber actors.