WIESBADEN, Germany (Reuters) – Cybercrime in Germany fell by 6.5% in 2022, federal police said on Wednesday, but this is due to more serious attacks and an increase of more than 8% in cybercrime originating from abroad. It said the decline was not “relief.” .
Economic losses totaled €203 billion ($221.59 billion), slightly less than last year, but still double that of 2019.
Cyberattacks and related crimes have been on high alert since the Russian-Ukrainian war, and police said the risks remained.
Germany registered 136,865 cases last year, down from 146,363 in 2021, when cybercrime surged by more than 12% from 2020.
“It sounds reassuring, but it’s not,” said Deputy Chief of the German BKA Federal Police Martina Link.
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He said many of last year’s attacks had reached a more severe stage early in the process, suggesting that the “quality” of crime had risen in severity, even though the volume had declined. pointed out that it means
The number of domestically targeted crimes originating outside Germany increased by more than 8%.
(Reporting by Tom Sims; Editing by Miranda Murray, Friederike Heine, Sharon Singleton)
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