Internet
Europol: Cyber crime is booming due to the corona crisis
Headquarters of Europol, the police authority of the European Union. Photo: Jerry Lampen / ANP / dpa / Symbolbild
© dpa-infocom GmbH
Cyber criminals are among the beneficiaries of the corona crisis. Targeted attacks with malware are increasingly aimed at the networks of large companies and institutions.
According to Europol, the corona pandemic is also giving cyber crime a significant boost.
Digitization accelerated during the pandemic, and criminals took advantage of it. This emerges from the latest report by the police authority on trends in Internet crime, which was published on Thursday in The Hague.
Hacker gangs took advantage of the fact that people were working more at home and directed targeted attacks on company networks in order to demand high ransom payments. Fraudsters abused fears of corona infections. Child sexual abuse on the Internet has increased as children spend a lot more time online, especially during lockdowns.
“Criminals were quick to abuse today’s conditions to increase their profits, expand their tentacles into various areas, and expose weaknesses in systems, hospitals or individuals,” the report said.
According to Europol, one of the main threats is organized attacks with malicious software. While mass attacks are going back on many computers, the investigators are now seeing an increase in targeted attacks on networks of large companies and public institutions.
The authority also warns of increasing fraud. The boom in online shopping caused by the pandemic has also led to a boom in fraud. Criminals are also increasingly developing mobile malware to bypass the security barriers of banks or companies.
The children are now much more at risk, according to the report. During the pandemic, they are far more active online and also unsupervised. Criminals are taking advantage of this, warns Europol. They would approach the children with fake identities – while gaming or on social networks – and urge them to sexualized poses and actions in front of the webcam. These would then be recorded and further disseminated on the Internet.