Mastering dangers

Data loss
There are many causes of data loss: hardware defects, software failures, inadequate backups, cyber attacks, fire or water damage. Accidental deletion of the contents of a hard disk can also occur. Data loss can threaten a company's existence due to production downtime and damage to its image.

Blackmail
"Pay 30 Bitcoin or we'll attack with a DDoS attack!" Such ransom demands are reaching hundreds of thousands of German companies. Financial service providers, insurance companies and online service providers are particularly affected. "DDoS" stands for "Distributed Denial of Service". Blackmailers can use such attacks to paralyze company websites, networks and computers.

Fraud
Cashless payment systems are a frequent target of Internet fraudsters. Their virtual attacks with manipulated account and credit card data are particularly damaging to financial service providers and online retailers

Hacking
Cyber criminals spy on security gaps in companies' IT systems in order to manipulate them. For example, hackers managed to hijack the telephone system of a German university. Within one weekend, they made 12,000 telephone connections to Africa. Amount of damage: EUR 120,000.

Amount of damage
For SMEs, a computer attack can threaten their very existence, warn experts with regard to average damage amounts. The violation of trade and business secrets by cyber criminals costs around 600,000 euros per case.

Darknet
In addition to drugs and weapons, stolen company data is also traded on anonymous black markets on the darknet, the encrypted area of the internet. The digital shadow economy therefore poses an increasing potential threat to commercial enterprises

Phishing
In phishing, the attacker attempts to obtain the personal data of Internet users via fake websites, e-mails or text messages in order to misuse them for their own purposes. The word is derived from "password" and "fishing", which means "fishing for passwords".

Occupational safety
Cybercrime is not least a threat to occupational safety in a company, warn prevention experts. If technical systems can be manipulated from outside due to a lack of data security, this can have an impact on their security functions and endanger employees without them realizing it

Malware
38.3 percent of all computers are attacked at least once a year by malware, according to the software company Kaspersky. Computer viruses and worms can infect millions of computers like an epidemic if they are not stopped in time.

The future
According to the Federal Criminal Police Office, the threats to the economy posed by cybercrime are continuing to increase. Trends such as the Internet of Things and Industry 4.0 are opening up new opportunities for crime.