Wisconsin Businesses See Increase in Cybersecurity Incidents

Tuesday, October 24th, 2023 -- 1:00 PM

(By Joe Schulz, Wisconsin Public Radio) A cyberattack earlier this month knocked out Kwik Trip’s loyalty program and disrupted internal company systems, but the La Crosse-based convenience store chain said it doesn’t believe customer payment information was affected.

According to Joe Schulz with Wisconsin Public Radio, it’s the latest high-profile cybersecurity incident in Wisconsin, as school districts, local governments, health systems and other employers have also experienced digital attacks in recent years.

Kwik Trip isn’t the only employer to experience a cyberattack in recent years, as they've been on the rise nationally. In 2018, the FBI’s Internet Crimes Complaint Center received 351,937 complaints of Internet scams that resulted in $2.7 billion in losses.

Last year, it received 800,944 complaints resulting in $10.3 billion in losses. A 2023 survey of over 400 Wisconsin manufacturing executives found that 22 percent had either been hacked or experienced a data breach of some kind. That’s up from 18 percent in 2022 and 16 percent in 2021.

Last year, a data breach at Elmbrook School District exposed current and former employees’ names and social security numbers. The state court system’s computer network was also attacked by hackers in March.

A cyberattack caused Prevea Health’s communications systems going down for over a week in late August and early September.

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