Billions in damage
The number of cyber crimes continues to rise – Faeser sees a serious threat
According to the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA), the dangers posed by cybercrime have continued to increase over the past year
© Dominic Lipinski / PA Wire / DPA
More than 800 companies and institutions reported attacks using encryption software last year. And cybercriminals also caused significant damage in other ways, as a BKA report shows.
The number of cybercrime crimes rose again in Germany last year. This applies in particular to crimes in which the perpetrators are abroad or at an unknown location, according to the Federal Cybercrime Situation Report presented on Monday in Wiesbaden Federal Criminal Police Office. The number of these so-called foreign crimes has been increasing continuously since they began to be recorded in 2020 – by 28 percent in 2023.
“The police database, but also the findings of individual IT security service providers, show a further increasing trend in cyber attacks in both quantitative and qualitative terms for 2023,” says the report.
“The threat situation in the area of cybersecurity remains high”
According to the annual balance sheet, the number of foreign crimes once again exceeds the number of domestic crimes in which Germany is the “place of action and damage”. According to the BKA, these stagnated at a high level: compared to 2022, there was a slight decrease of 1.8 percent. 82 percent are cases of computer fraud, as the situation report shows. The clearance rate for domestic crimes has increased slightly to 32 percent.
“The threat situation in the area of cybersecurity remains high,” explained Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser when presenting the situation report. Cyber defense must be further strengthened. Geographical borders “hardly play any role” for cybercriminals, the Federal Criminal Police Office said. This is shown by the fact that “the place of action and place of success in cybercrimes are particularly often different”.
According to the BKA, the perpetrators fished out data again in 2023 and gained access to systems via vulnerabilities. They shut down government websites with DDoS campaigns and encrypted companies’ IT systems with ransomware in order to blackmail their victims. In 2023, over 800 companies and institutions nationwide reported ransomware cases to the police. It can be assumed that the number of unreported cases is high.
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Cybercrime: Total damage in Germany amounting to 205.9 billion euros
High amounts of damage were again caused by cybercrime in 2023, as the BKA explained and referred to figures from the digital association Bitkom. Accordingly, the total damage from analog and digital theft, industrial espionage or sabotage for companies in Germany amounted to 205.9 billion euros. According to information, Bitkom attributes almost three quarters of this total damage to cyber attacks. The explicitly stated damage caused by blackmail with stolen or encrypted data amounts to 16.1 billion euros.
When presenting the situation report, BKA President Holger Münch pointed out the successes of the investigation. “Cybercrime is a growing international threat that we must address holistically and effectively,” he said.
The BKA considered the shutdown of “Chipmixer”, the largest money laundering platform on the Darknet, and several criminal marketplaces such as “Kingdom Market” to be a particular success in the investigation. Extortion activities from several ransomware groups have been stopped. In addition, a dangerous malware network, “Qakbot,” was destroyed.
The President of the Federal Office for Information Security (BSI), Claudia Plattner, called on citizens and companies to become aware of the dangers and to protect themselves. “We are not defenseless against criminals,” explained Plattner. “Just as we lock windows and doors when we leave home or the office, we can also protect ourselves in cyberspace.”