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IT services firm · 14 min

When a client gets hacked

One morning a client's files are locked and a note on every screen asks for money. Before you fix a thing, three papers decide who pays: your contract, your insurance, and the client's.

TICKETS
Ticket 01 · The guess

What do email tricks cost?

Ransomware locks a business's files until it pays. For 2025, victims reported $32.3Mic3.gov ·2025 of ransomware losses to the FBI. Business email compromise is simpler: a fake or taken-over email that gets someone to send money to a crook. Guess what victims reported losing to it.

$500M
$0$5B
Words to know

Spot something wrong?

Tell us what looks off. No name or email needed.

What kind of problem?

0 / 1000

We'll also send this page, the lesson, ticket 1, so we can find it. Nothing else. Privacy

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Sources and every number (1)

Sources

  • 2025 Internet Crime Report (losses and complaints reported to the Internet Crime Complaint Center, IC3, in 2025) · Federal Bureau of Investigation, 2025

Every number

  • $3.05Bic3.gov ·2025 · Losses from business email compromise reported to the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center for 2025.
  • $32.3Mic3.gov ·2025 · Losses from ransomware reported to the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center for 2025. The FBI says this usually leaves out lost business, time, wages, files, equipment and outside help, and some victims report no loss at all.
  • 94 timesexample (example number: Worked out from our example: business email compromise's reported losses for 2025 divided by ransomware's (a little over ninety-four), rounded down.) · Worked out from our example: business email compromise's reported losses for 2025 divided by ransomware's (a little over ninety-four), rounded down.
  • $1.16Bic3.gov ·2025 · Money in the transfers the FBI's Recovery Asset Team tried to stop in 2025 (attempted theft, across all the incidents it worked on).
  • $679Mic3.gov ·2025 · Money the FBI's Recovery Asset Team helped freeze in 2025.
  • 58%ic3.gov ·2025 · The share of the attempted theft the FBI's Recovery Asset Team helped freeze in 2025, as the report gives it.
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  • ·Before this: The help desk
  • ·Free guide: How IT services firms make money
Skip to the lesson
Back to the home page and map, from TryOwning · IT services firm · Lesson 4
Part 1 of 3Part 1 of 3, 0 done

IT services firm · 14 min

When a client gets hacked

One morning a client's files are locked and a note on every screen asks for money. Before you fix a thing, three papers decide who pays: your contract, your insurance, and the client's.

TICKETS
Ticket 01 · The guess

What do email tricks cost?

Ransomware locks a business's files until it pays. For 2025, victims reported $32.3Mic3.gov ·2025 of ransomware losses to the FBI. Business email compromise is simpler: a fake or taken-over email that gets someone to send money to a crook. Guess what victims reported losing to it.

$500M
$0$5B
Words to know

Spot something wrong?

Tell us what looks off. No name or email needed.

What kind of problem?

0 / 1000

We'll also send this page, the lesson, ticket 1, so we can find it. Nothing else. Privacy

·
Sources and every number (1)

Sources

  • 2025 Internet Crime Report (losses and complaints reported to the Internet Crime Complaint Center, IC3, in 2025) · Federal Bureau of Investigation, 2025

Every number

  • $3.05Bic3.gov ·2025 · Losses from business email compromise reported to the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center for 2025.
  • $32.3Mic3.gov ·2025 · Losses from ransomware reported to the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center for 2025. The FBI says this usually leaves out lost business, time, wages, files, equipment and outside help, and some victims report no loss at all.
  • 94 timesexample (example number: Worked out from our example: business email compromise's reported losses for 2025 divided by ransomware's (a little over ninety-four), rounded down.) · Worked out from our example: business email compromise's reported losses for 2025 divided by ransomware's (a little over ninety-four), rounded down.
  • $1.16Bic3.gov ·2025 · Money in the transfers the FBI's Recovery Asset Team tried to stop in 2025 (attempted theft, across all the incidents it worked on).
  • $679Mic3.gov ·2025 · Money the FBI's Recovery Asset Team helped freeze in 2025.
  • 58%ic3.gov ·2025 · The share of the attempted theft the FBI's Recovery Asset Team helped freeze in 2025, as the report gives it.
  1. Lessons›
  2. Industries›
  3. IT services firm
  • ·Before this: The help desk
  • ·Free guide: How IT services firms make money