Quick Answer
What percentage of hackers get caught in 2025?
Despite stricter cyber laws, only 4% to 5% of hackers get apprehended by law enforcement every year.
Engaging in hacking activities is punishable by law.
And with the number of incidents that have taken place in the past years, governments are tightening their law enforcement on data breaches.
In the middle of higher fines and longer prison sentences, how many hackers get caught?
Let’s find out!
What Percentage of Hackers Get Caught?
Despite stricter cyber laws, only 4% to 5% of hackers get apprehended by law enforcement every year.
Internet criminals may be the most difficult vigilantes to catch.
This is for reasons including hiding behind fake identities and other advanced techniques, making it hard for authorities to track their crumbs.
Most often, cyber criminals use a proxy server that allows them to communicate with servers from other countries while avoiding detection.
This makes it harder to track their exact whereabouts at the time they execute a crime.
How Are Hackers Caught?
Catching a hacker doing a felony is difficult, but many law enforcement agencies have found a way to go around this though using the honeypot method.
Honeypots, as the word suggests, are a way of all sweets and promises specifically created to lure hackers in.
They are a decoy computer system, network service, file, or device that mimics a target for an attack.
This means they are clickbait for hackers with men of the law behind them, and criminals who bite the trap are busted.
The honeypot method helps authorities identify who is responsible for the breach.
Moreover, the patterns and codes used makes it easy to link similar incidents in the past for further reckoning.
Right now, this is one of the few ways proven to catch hackers.
Although it has been contested to be a slow process as participants are playing the cat-and-mouse trap.
Other Methods to Find Hackers
Sometimes, hackers serve themselves on a plate. This means their traceability is brought about by carelessness.
It is easy to track a hacker that has failed to use a VPN before executing a felony.
The same has happened with the leader of the LulzSec group leader, a notorious hacker that hit on high-profile companies and government organizations, including the FBI.
The leader, identified as 28-year-old New York resident Hector Xavier Monsegur, forgot to use the Tor system to access a chat group, leading to his arrest in 2012.
How Much Do Hackers Make?
Money remains the biggest motivating factor for hacking. According to the security firm Bromium, high-profile hackers make millions of dollars every year.
In a more detailed look, the annual gross of top-tier hackers is at $2 million. Moreover, mid-level participants make $900,000 while entry-level ones make $42,000 yearly.
Even entry-level criminals make more than most of the average workers in the United States, luring people to get into the act despite the risk.
Prison Sentence for Hackers in the United States
The United States may top the countries with the highest interest to catch hackers.
This comes as many of the world’s wealthiest companies and individuals are located in the region, making them prime hack targets.
Here are the types of cyber offenses and their respective prison sentences, as mandated by the Computer and Fraud Abuse Act:
1. Illegally Obtaining National Security Information
Hackers caught in this act are apprehended with up to a 10-year prison sentence on the first conviction and with up to a 20-year prison sentence on the second conviction
2. Accessing a Computer for The Purpose of Defrauding and Obtaining Value
Hackers caught in this act are apprehended with up to a five-year prison sentence on the first conviction and with up to a 10-year prison sentence on the second conviction
3. Accessing a Computer and Illegally Obtaining Information
Hackers caught in this act are apprehended with up to a year prison sentence on the first conviction and with up to a 10-year prison sentence on the second conviction
4. Intentionally Posing Damage by Knowing Transmission
Hackers caught in this act are apprehended with up to a 10-year prison sentence on the first conviction and with up to a 20-year prison sentence on the second conviction
5. Using Computers for Extortion
Hackers caught in this act are apprehended with up to a five-year prison sentence on the first conviction and with up to a 10-year prison sentence on the second conviction
6. Password Trafficking
Hackers caught in this act are apprehended with up to a year prison sentence on the first conviction and with up to a 10-year prison sentence on the second conviction
Famous Hackers That Got Caught
What percentage of hackers get caught?
Only 5%! And among these are high-profile names behind the world’s most popular hacking incidents.
When famous hackers get busted, authorities make sure they do it in grand style – the world has to know!
Here is a list of some of the most famous cybercriminals to ever get caught in history.
1. The Homeless Hacker
In 2004, Adrian Lamo, popularly known as “The Homeless Hacker,” pleaded guilty to his cyber crimes involving the biggest news companies in the world namely Yahoo!, Reuters, and The New York Times, among others.
2. Kevin Poulsen
Popular for hacking through the files related to the notorious dictator of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos, Kevin Poulsen is one of the most popular hackers before the new millennium era.
He was arrested in 1991 and pleaded to seven grounds of conspiracy acts in 1994.
3. Albert Gonzales
Known for masterminding the biggest credit card fraud in history, Albert Gonzales fell into the arms of authorities in 2008 under a 20-year prison sentence.
He is behind the theft of approximately 200 million accounts from the world’s biggest financial institutions.
Conclusion
What percentage of hackers get caught?
Right now, the number is just 5% each year.
On the other hand, many governments and private companies are willing to spend billions of dollars to stop these acts, and it will not be long before this improves.
Make sure to protect your data at all costs!
A hacking incident could be costly, and not many companies recover from it.
