The report on cybercrime in Germany for the year 2025 shows alarming data. The damage exceeds 200 billion euros, and on average more than 900 attacks have occurred per day
"Level" cyber threats remains consistently high," says Interior Minister Alexander Dobrint (CSU), a politician in charge of security in Germany. The reason for his warning is the Cybercrime Report for the year 2025, which was published on Tuesday (May 12) in Berlin by the Federal Criminal Police (BKA), writes DW.
BKA Vice President Martina Link also considers the report's findings to be alarming. It estimates the financial damage at approximately 202 billion euros. This corresponds to approximately 4,5 percent of gross domestic product (GDP). The primary targets of these attacks are businesses, government agencies and critical infrastructure such as power plants or hospitals.
The total number of attacks officially registered by the police - from malicious software secretly implanted on computers, to data theft and emptying of bank accounts - was 334.000. That's an average of more than 900 attacks per day. Germany is a particularly lucrative target for cybercriminals because, despite the crisis, it is still the third largest national economy in the world.
Two-thirds of these crimes were committed from abroad or from locations that could not be definitively identified. "These attacks are always cross-border, they are almost always international," emphasized BKA vice-president Link. Like the Minister of the Interior, she also believes that progress is rapid artificial intelligence (VI) the biggest challenge.
Even non-expert individuals can quickly acquire specific abilities using AI, Dobrint says. "The language capabilities of artificial intelligence allow it to operate simultaneously in very different regions of the world, because it can generate flawless text in different languages." The result is authentic-looking web pages or emails that cybercriminals use to lure their victims onto a false trail.
Despite the growing dangers, Minister Aleksander Dobrint remains confident in the fight against cybercrime: "We are not helpless," he says, and at the same time points to successful cooperation with other countries as evidence. His main evidence is a major strike against internationally networked cybercriminals - called "Operation Endgame 2.0".
In that action, authorities from seven countries successfully joined forces to neutralize one of the most dangerous malicious programs in existence.
In that operation, Germany cooperated with Denmark, France, Great Britain, Canada, the Netherlands and the USA. In addition, the police and judicial authorities of the European Union were also involved. International warrants have been issued for about 20 suspects, most of whom are from Russia.
"Our successful measures against cybercrime show that police action is effective - however, they must not create a false sense of security in relation to the highly dynamic threat landscape in cyberspace," warns BKA Vice President Link. Her agency is currently authorized only to investigate crimes, but lacks the authority to take preventive measures against immediate threats. "To put it somewhat cynically: we have to wait until the damage is done - until the 'kid falls into the well' - before we can really take action."
Minister of the Interior Dobrint intends to change that as soon as possible. To this end, the federal government will soon submit a legislative proposal to the Bundestag to establish the necessary legal framework for active cyber defense. "Our goal is to disrupt and destroy an attacker's infrastructure. That means: gaining access to their digital systems."
Furthermore, Dobrint is committed to the comprehensive retention of computer IP addresses and to the implementation of automated data analysis capabilities. The state must not remain just an observer in the digital world, the Minister of the Interior claims, thus justifying his far-reaching demands. The goal, he emphasizes, is to ensure that the authorities are technically and legally equipped to act on an equal footing with the perpetrators - and to strike back.
But Dobrint's plans have long been controversial. "The federal government is introducing mass surveillance through the back door," Left MP Clara Binger criticized a draft proposal on IP retention that came to light in April. Binger, who is among the members of the opposition party in the Bundestag in charge of domestic policy, described it as "a frontal attack on the basic digital rights of over 80 million people."
Source: DW
Real journalism costs money, and we will not be bought by tycoons and corporations. Support us with a one-time or monthly donation. The time for it is now!
The gnats are wreaking havoc in parts of Rome. Bird droppings rain down on the Romans every day. They can't disperse them even with trumpets, so they move around the city with umbrellas
The number of people deported to the US in the fiscal year ended September 30 was about nine percent higher than the previous record of 442.640 deportations.
An outage of Microsoft servers due to increased load has left users around the world without access to Microsoft 365 applications. Problems have also been reported by large companies and government institutions
Milorad Dodik says that his son Igor is among the candidates for prime minister of Republika Srpska because he is one of the most promising members of the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats.
Croatia asks Montenegro to fulfill six demands. If it does not do so, it threatens to block its negotiations for membership in the European Union.
At the moment when the institutions of the Republic are destroyed, when Vučić's octopus is still alive, when people are disgusted by the injustice and the stench left behind by the Essenes regime, we have, as Machiavelli said, only civic virtue as the fuel with which we can return to the beginning
The four independent members of REM are an example of perseverance and civic responsibility. Rodoljub Šabić even, upon leaving the premises of REM, after the sentencing of the Informer, experienced that the Essenes insulted him, hit him with their hands and feet. But that too will soon be over
Vučić pardoned the batterers and Dijana Hrkalović. The election winners should abolish the sultan's power that allows one man to run afoul of the entire judicial system
Interview: Branko Stamenković, public prosecutor of the Supreme Public Prosecutor's Office
A black picture and the breakdown of the rule of law subscribeThe archive of the weekly Vreme includes all our digital editions, since the very beginning of our work. All issues can be downloaded in PDF format, by purchasing the digital edition, or you can read all available texts from the selected issue.
See all
