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The report released on Monday said the state’s cyber crime
losses totaled $535 million in 2025, up from $479 million in
2024.
Carrie Crot is a supervisory special agent in the FBI’s Chicago
office.
“Illinois being in the top 10 just due to the population and, of
course, the cybersecurity hygiene of business owners, government
agencies, no matter what your title or your organization may be,
everybody's vulnerable to a cyber incident,” Crot told The
Center Square.
Illinois had 32,977 cyber crime complaints in 2025.
Nationally, the report said cyber-enabled crimes defrauded
Americans out of nearly $21 billion last year, up from $16.6
billion in 2024.
Crot said cyber-related investment fraud can involve initial
public offerings, non-delivery or rerouting of money for
purchases, and more.
“If you're buying a house and you're told to send the escrow
money to a certain account, cyber actors have found a way to
insert themselves into that conversation and redirect that
money,” Crot said, adding that many of the crimes start with
phishing.
Crot said the FBI wears the hats of both law enforcement and
national security.
“We use every tool in the toolbox that's available to us to
impose costs and consequences to these actors to prevent them
from victimizing another victim,” Crot said.
Crot said the agency implemented Operation Winter Shield with 10
steps to prevent cyber crime.
“These 10 concrete actions can be applied at home, at a small
business, a medium-sized business, an organization, a government
agency, just to increase our cyber resiliency against these
cyber actors,” Crot said.
FBI officials told The Center Square that Operation Winter
Shield is primarily a social media and public awareness campaign
with minimal taxpayer expense.
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