Trade with stolen data flourishes
According to its 2014 annual report, the Federal Office of Police also had to deal intensively with cybercrime.
In the 2014 reporting year, reports of criminal acts against assets received by the Cybercrime Coordination Unit (CYCO) increased markedly, fedpol writes. With the increasing number of internet-enabled devices (especially smartphones) and the growing amount of personal digital data, the misuse of this data for criminal purposes is also becoming more attractive, it said. At the same time, users are often not aware of the risks of these technologies and disclose private information more carelessly.
According to fedpol, the perpetrators are increasingly using malicious software that downloads user data such as stored passwords - for example to e-mail accounts, online payment services or online music stores - from the infected computer. The access data obtained in this way can be sold by the perpetrators in underground forums or used to commit further crimes. This approach is very lucrative for the perpetrators and involves little risk, fedpol emphasizes.
In prosecuting crimes on the Internet, law enforcement agencies face numerous technical and legal challenges that are often deliberately exploited by cybercriminals. The Federal Office therefore relies on national and international cooperation and makes intensive use of the available channels and expert groups of Europol and Interpol.
More on the topic of cybercrime in the fedpol annual report 2014 from page 46.
