The number of so-called cyber crimes has risen again in the past year.

This was announced by the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) on Monday in a statement on the current situation regarding cyber crime.

A total of 146,363 offenses were recorded, which corresponds to an increase of more than twelve percent compared to the previous year.

At 29.3 percent, the clear-up rate remained at a low level.

As stated in a statement, the increase in the number of cases "continues the increase in importance of cybercrime that has already been observed in recent years".

The development is "an expression of the progressive shift of crime into the digital space".

Catherine Iskandar

Responsible editor for the "Rhein-Main" department of the Sunday newspaper.

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The BKA cites the expansion of international supply chains as one of the reasons for this development, which has opened up new opportunities for criminals to commit crimes.

It is still possible for the perpetrators to act anonymously from abroad.

The entire phenomenon of cybercrime is also still characterized by an above-average number of unreported cases, since criminal offenses are often not reported.

As the authority went on to explain, cybercrime is still one of the phenomena with the highest potential for damage in Germany.

According to the economic protection report, the damage calculated by the Bitkom industry association amounted to 223.5 billion euros last year, twice as high as in 2019. In the area of ​​ransomware alone, the damage has almost quintupled to 24.3 billion euros since the last survey , according to the BKA report.

According to BKA Vice President Martina Link, the threat potential in the area of ​​ransomware has increased significantly again in 2021.

Financial service providers and public institutions are particularly affected

So-called DDoS attacks, which lead to a failure of Internet services, often due to data network overload, have also increased.

According to the BKA, not only are the cases of such cyber attacks themselves increasing, but so is the complexity with which they are carried out.

A variety of different industries have been affected by this type of cyber attack in the past year.

In addition to financial service providers, hosting providers, learning and vaccination portals, public institutions were also in focus.

According to the BKA, the investigators are observing an “increasing adaptability of cybercrime actors”.

It is not uncommon for them to act according to the "crime as a service" model.

Nevertheless, the investigative authorities have regularly succeeded in taking significant strikes against crime in cyberspace over the past year, such as the destruction of the Darknet marketplace Hydra Market.

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