More than 130,000 cases
BKA publishes report on cybercrime
From data theft to blackmail: online crime is on the rise.
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Germany is confronted with cybercrime at a high level. The situation report published by the Federal Criminal Police Office shows the extent.
The good news first: Overall, cybercrime in Germany fell slightly last year. Nevertheless, cybercrime remains a serious problem, the digital association Bitkom even speaks of “one of the greatest threats to Germany”. To what extent companies have lost money to crime on the World Wide Web and what are the most common crimes.
Despite a decline of 6.5 percent, cybercrime in Germany remains at a high level. According to the recent According to the report published by the Federal Criminal Police Office, a total of 136,865 crimes classified as cyber crime were committed in 2022. The authorities were able to clarify 39,937 cases, i.e. around 29 percent. The peak in solved cases is for illegal trading platforms, of which 10 out of the 13 cases recorded have been resolved. Cyber crime accounts for 2.4 percent of all crimes recorded in Germany, compared to 2.9 percent in 2021.
However, cyber crimes committed from abroad are increasing and distorting the overall result. The BKA says: “Cybercrime is a disproportionately high number of crimes committed abroad. In Germany, for example, a 2.4% share of all crimes is registered for cyber crimes with identified perpetrators, while this share is around ten times as high for crimes abroad Almost a quarter of all registered crimes abroad relate to cybercrime.”
Cybercrime in Germany: That’s how huge the costs are
The amounts of damage caused by cybercrime are enormous and will amount to 202.7 billion euros in 2022. Compared to the BKA’s 2019 report, this represents a doubling of the damage caused. But even in the midst of this finding, there is a small ray of hope: The damage caused by attempts at extortion has fallen from 24 to 11 billion euros, the BKA cites the reason for this as reduced willingness to pay by German companies. However, the report also assumes an “above-average” number of unreported cases – so no one knows how high the actual damage is.
In one carried out by the digital association Bitkom Opinion poll However, it becomes clear that many people are aware of the threat situation. 63 percent of the 603 companies surveyed expect to be the victim of a cyber attack in the coming year. The worrying finding: not even half of them (48 percent) see themselves and their IT department adequately prepared for such a case. 18 percent do not dare to make an assessment and only around one in five entrepreneurs (19 percent) currently feels safe.
The current greatest dangers and how the BKA would like to counter them
According to the report, the biggest gateway for criminals remains ransomware such as LockBit, Phobos or Deadbolt. On average, at least one company will be affected by such attacks every day in 2022, and the BKA also shows that a shadow economy of its own has developed around this software: “In the past few years, the so-called ‘ransomware ‘as-a-service’ business model, whereby ransomware developers rent out the use of their malware to so-called ‘affiliates’, who carry out ransomware attacks and receive a share of the extorted ransom.This form of ‘service’ enables would-be cybercriminals to do the same without extensive technical skills of their own to carry out ransomware attacks.”
In order to be able to counter this threat appropriately, the BKA believes that extended powers for the law enforcement agencies and concentration on the IT infrastructure of the perpetrators is the right way to go. In the case of crimes committed abroad in particular, this is more promising than pursuing individuals. The 2022 management report therefore concludes with a view to the future: “In order to comprehensively combat cybercrime, the BKA will therefore increasingly aim to break up criminal infrastructures in the future.”