The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center, known as IC3, puts out an annual report on cybercrime across the country. In its most recent full-year data, Texas ranked second among all states in the number of cybercrime complaints reported, trailing only California, with Texans reporting over a billion dollars in losses in a single year. That is not a small-town statistic. That is one of the largest states in the country dealing with one of the largest cybercrime problems in the country.
What this ranking actually measures
It is worth being precise here, because numbers like this get repeated without context. Texas ranks second in total complaint volume and total dollar losses, which makes sense given how large the state’s population and business community are. When researchers instead measure complaints per capita, adjusting for population size, Texas ranks lower, closer to the middle of the pack. Both numbers are true, and both matter. Texas is not necessarily the single riskiest state per person, but it is one of the largest overall targets in the country simply because of how much economic activity happens here.
What the top complaint categories tell us
According to the FBI’s reporting, the most common categories of cybercrime affecting Texans include extortion, personal data breaches, and phishing or spoofing attempts. None of these require a nation-state-level attacker. They are the everyday, unglamorous tactics that hit small and medium businesses just as often as large ones, sometimes more often, because smaller businesses tend to have fewer defenses in place.
Why Texas draws this kind of attention
A few factors make Texas a natural target:
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Size and density of business activity. More businesses and more transactions simply mean more opportunities for attackers.
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A large small business economy. Small and medium businesses often have fewer dedicated security resources than large enterprises, making them comparatively easier targets.
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High-value industries concentrated in the state. Energy, healthcare, real estate, and financial services all handle exactly the kind of sensitive data attackers want, and Texas has a heavy concentration of all four.
What this means for your business specifically
If you run a business in Texas, you are operating in a state that attackers actively pay attention to, whether you are in Houston, Dallas, Austin, or a smaller community in between. This is not a reason for alarm. It is a reason to treat basic network protection the way you would treat insurance or a locked door, not optional, and not something you get to later.
A reasonable place to start
You do not need to overhaul your entire operation overnight. A good first step is simply understanding what is actually happening on your network today, in plain language, without a sales pitch attached. Our Verify assessment is built to do exactly that.
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