Security on the web
Cyber crime is booming due to the corona crisis
Investigators see an increase in targeted attacks on networks of large companies and public institutions. Photo: Sebastian Gollnow / dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
Home office instead of the office, online shopping instead of a shopping spree: During the corona crisis, many activities of people in Germany have shifted to the internet. The criminals are also following this trend.
The corona pandemic has given cyber crime a significant boost. That comes from statistics that Europol and the credit insurer Euler Hermes presented independently on Thursday.
In the pandemic, digitization accelerated, which criminals took advantage of, explained Europol. Gangs of hackers benefited from people working more at home and targeted attacks on company networks to demand high ransom payments. Fraudsters also misused 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 agency also warned that the growth in online shopping caused by the pandemic has also led to a boom in fraud. Criminals would increasingly develop mobile malware to bypass the security barriers of banks or companies.
The trend observed by Europol is also reflected in the statistics of the insurance industry. In the case of payment fraud, the number of cases rose by around 35 percent last year, and order fraud was around 25 percent more, said the fraud expert at Euler Hermes, Rüdiger Kirsch, in Hamburg.
Similar to Europol, the Hamburg credit insurer sees one reason for the increase in cyber crime in the outsourcing of workplaces to the home office: “The hurdle of calling a colleague and asking him about a process is often much higher here. Account details are changed briefly – often with fatal consequences, ”said Kirsch. Criminals hacked people, not systems. “Social distancing plays into their cards.”
In the case of payment fraud, the perpetrators are trying to get companies to order payments, for example via e-mails with falsified account details. According to Euler Hermes, fraudsters were able to steal almost six million euros in a single case through a manipulated invoice. In most cases, however, the amount of damage is between around 30,000 and one million euros.
The cyber expert at the Hamburg State Criminal Police Office, Andreas Dondera, sees the fraudsters becoming more and more professional. They also no longer have to be hackers or IT specialists, everything that is technically necessary can now be bought on the Darknet, for example. In Germany, the electronics stores of Media Markt and Saturn recently fell victim to a cyber attack, as a result of which the servers of the merchandise management system were encrypted,