Illinois recorded one of the highest totals in the country for cyber crime complaints last year, according to the FBI’s latest Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) report.
The report shows Illinois ranked fifth nationwide in complaints and eighth in reported losses in 2025. Illinois residents filed 32,977 complaints, with total losses reaching $535 million. That marks an increase from the $479 million reported in 2024.
Across the country, reported losses tied to cyber-enabled crime climbed to over $20 billion in 2025, up from $16.6 billion the year before.
The FBI says cyber threats are continuing to grow and change, especially as emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence become more widely used. In response, the agency is encouraging stronger cybersecurity practices for both individuals and organizations.
To improve preparedness, the FBI launched Operation Winter Shield, a public awareness campaign highlighting steps organizations can take to improve resilience against cyber intrusions, including:
· Adopt phish-resistant authentication
· Implement a risk-based vulnerability management program
· Track and retire end-of-life technology on a defined schedule
· Manage third-party risk
· Protect security logs and preserve them for an appropriate time period
· Maintain offline immutable backups and test restoration
· Identify, inventory, and protect internet-facing systems and services
· Strengthen email authentication and malicious content protections
· Reduce administrator privileges
· Exercise your incident response plan with all stakeholders For more on Operation Winter Shield, click here.
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