Updated status report now available. - Computer-related criminal damage reaches all-time peak, according to LKA.
Last year, computer crimes in North Rhine-Westphalia caused more damage than ever before, reaching a whopping €26.9 million. This according to a recent report by the State Criminal Police Office (LKA). That's about €2.7 million more than the year before.
The report reveals that the LKA looked into cases of computer fraud and software piracy, but doesn't have a specific category for cybercrime extortions. They also mentioned that successful extortions are rarely reported. However, a new kind of cybercrime has come to the forefront due to the Ukraine war - ransomware attacks by state-acting institutions posing as criminal groups.
The line between politically motivated cyber attacks and regular cybercrime property crimes can often be blurry. Some hacker groups expressed their support for Russia at the start of the war, seeing Germany as a direct target. The LKA warns that these stealthy, politically motivated cyber attacks from foreign organizations and states will continue to be a major challenge for German security agencies in the coming years.
There were 29,667 cases of cybercrime in 2022, a 1.49% decrease from the previous year's tally of 30,115. The most common crimes were computer fraud and data snooping. Fewer cases were cleared last year (25.84%) compared to the year before (26.63%) and they identified 6,623 suspects, up from 6,056. Most of the suspects were male.
