Media News - Wednesday, September 08, 2010

Cybercrime in Germany on the rise

A new study estimates that Germany will lose 17 million euros to phishing by the end of 2010. Law enforcement officials seek more access to personal data online while civil libertarians have called for more privacy. With virus programs, data theft, and credit card fraud ever more present – cybercrime in Germany is constantly increasing. That's the conclusion of a new joint study published Monday by the German information technology trade group, Bitkom and the Federal Criminal Police Office, also known by its German acronym, BKA. According to their new study, the two groups estimate that there will be around 5,000 phishing cases in Germany by the end of the year. Phishing occurs when Internet users are fooled into giving up personal information, usually on fraudulent websites designed to look like legitimate platforms. They add that this represents a 70 percent increase over last year. The study also states that the average financial loss for each phishing incident is around 3,500 euros and that the total sum of money lost to phishing for the whole country in 2010 will be about 17 million euros. (Deutsche Welle)

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