A hand hovers over a keyboard as both are illuminated by a red light. When companies cut budgets and lay off employees to save money, they can unintentionally make themselves vulnerable to attack. (Credit: Bigstock)

There were 336,655 complaints of online crime made to the Federal Bureau of Investigations' Internet Crime Complaints Center at the height of the recession in 2009 – an increase of over 22% from the previous year. The amount of monetary loss from these crimes in 2009 was more than double what was reported in 2008, coming in just shy of $560 million.

When the COVID-19 pandemic struck in 2020, the U.S. encountered another recession. Unemployment peaked at 14.7% and, just as during the 2009 recession, there was a spike in crimes reported to the Internet Crime Complaints Center – 791,790 reports in 2020, up 69.4% from 2019.

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Brittney Meredith-Miller

Brittney Meredith-Miller is assistant editor of PropertyCasualty360.com. She can be reached at [email protected].

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