German police report shows increase in cybercrime coming from abroad

The dangers posed by cyberattacks in Germany have continued to increase over the past year, according to a report by Germany's Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA).

"The police database, but also the findings of individual IT security service providers, show a renewed upward trend in cyberattacks in 2023, both in terms of quantity and quality," the report states.

In particular, the number of offences committed from abroad or from an unknown location has been increasing, according to the National Situation Report on Cybercrime for 2023.

According to the BKA, the number of cybercrime offences recorded from abroad increased by around 28% compared to the previous year. In Germany, the police crime statistics for the same period recorded a slight decrease in cybercrime offences of 1.8%.

Ransomware attacks, in which criminals encrypt the data of companies or public administration and demand a ransom for decryption, continued to be among the most serious threats.

Nationwide, more than 800 companies and institutions reported ransomware cases in 2023, according to the police report.

Cybercrime once again caused high amounts of damage in 2023, as the BKA explained, citing figures from the digital association Bitkom.

According to Bitkom, the total damage caused to companies in Germany by analogue and digital theft, industrial espionage and sabotage amounted to €205.9 billion ($222 billion).

Almost three quarters of this total damage can be attributed to cyberattacks, Bitkom reported. The explicitly reported losses caused by blackmail with stolen or encrypted data totalled €16.1 billion.

Earlier on Monday, Bitkom spoke of an increasing number of cyberattacks from China and Russia.

Within two years, a doubling of attacks from Russia has been measured, managing director Bernhard Rohleder told German public broadcaster ZDF on Monday morning. There was also a 50% increase in the number of known incidents from China, he said.

Eighty percent of companies were targeted by attacks such as data theft, espionage or sabotage, according to the Bitkom director.

The amount of damage caused by cybercrime to companies in Germany has also increased over the years.

"The damage is €148 billion per year from cyber attacks alone, meaning digital attacks," said Bitkom's Rohleder ahead of the presentation of the report. "That is a very significant amount."

Organized crime is often behind these attacks, as are foreign intelligence services, he added.

"Some are after money," Rohleder said, adding that other perpetrators want to cause as much damage as possible, such as to critical infrastructure like the energy supply or hospitals.

"And there are still some, especially private individuals, who just want to have fun," he said.