The United States faces many cybersecurity risks, and those risks are increasing daily. Any attack is possible, but some are more likely to occur than others. According to the U.S. Government Accountability Office (n.d.), one of the biggest risks that cost the most money is through emails, specifically business emails. Risky emails in businesses can lead to a direct transfer of funds to an unauthorized person, costing the company huge amounts of money. The second most common cybersecurity risk in the U.S. is a data breach in which the data is in some way given or exposed to unauthorized persons, which means the confidentiality of the data is broken. The third most reported cybersecurity incidents in the U.S. are denial of service and distributed denial of service. These types of attacks usually break the availability of the system or data, making the network or system either partially or completely unusable. The fourth most reported cybersecurity incident in the U.S. is ransomware. This type of attack also restricts the availability of a system and/or specific data, usually until a specified ransom is paid. These are the four most reported cybersecurity risks in the United States. These attacks may come from either inside the U.S. or outside the U.S. and cost millions of dollars annually. The U.K. faces similar cybersecurity risks to the U.S., although the order of risks is different. According to The National Crime Agency (n.d.), the top cybersecurity risk in the U.K. is hacking followed by phishing, malicious software, and distributed denial of service attacks (often with some form of extortion included). These attacks aim to steal passwords, data, and/or money and cost millions of pounds per year.

U.S. Government Accountability Office. (n.d.). Cybersecurity. Retrieved February 19, 2023, from https://www.gao.gov/cybersecurity

The National Crime Agency. (n.d.). Cybercrime. Retrieved February 19, 2023, from https://www.nationalcrimeagency.gov.uk/what-we-do/crime-threats/cyber-crime