Office of the Public Prosecutor General - State cybercrime office: thousands of investigations
In the fight against cybercrime, thousands of investigations have already been processed at the State Cybercrime Center (LZC) at the Koblenz Public Prosecutor General's Office. "Due to increasing digitalization, it can be assumed that cybercrime will also continue to increase," the head of the LZC, Senior Public Prosecutor Jörg Angerer, told the German Press Agency. He could not give an exact number of cases, but only this much: "There were certainly several thousand." The specialist unit was founded in October 2014.
Currently, ransomware attacks in particular are being detected "on a considerable scale", said Angerer. They were directed against companies as well as public authorities and private individuals. In a ransomware attack, the perpetrators encrypt their victims' data and attempt to extort a ransom. The hackers often also threaten to publish confidential data on the internet that was previously captured during the attack.
However, the LZC only deals with cyber attacks in cases of particular importance: This is the case, for example, when companies or authorities are affected that belong to the "critical infrastructures" (Kritis) and are therefore considered particularly worthy of protection. Critical infrastructures" include hospitals and energy companies, for example.
In addition, an increasing shift of drug-related crime to the darknet can be observed, said the senior public prosecutor. The total number of cases processed had also increased because the LZC had been staffed up. In addition to Angerer, the team includes two other senior public prosecutors and two public prosecutors.
The focus is generally on proceedings "of particular importance, particular difficulty or particular scope", said Angerer. The LZC handles its proceedings "proactively". This means that specific players in the network are filtered out in order to then investigate them. This approach leads to proceedings being conducted against perpetrators who would otherwise not be prosecuted.
"The LZC has therefore proven to be a useful and necessary addition to the public prosecutor's offices," he said. Local public prosecutors' offices usually respond differently to criminal complaints than the LZC.
State Cybercrime Center
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Source: www.stern.de
