What does Ukraine's war have to do with cybercrime?

Even the Federal Crime Institute itself, BAK, has been targeted by cyberattacks. Early in May, hackers issued a host of questions to the server of some of the German authorities and ministries. The DDos attack was intended to overload German institutions so that they were no longer accessible. The attack was carried out by pronoming in the Telegram, a group of Russian hackers, calling himself “Kilnet”.

They didn't have much success with the BKA. What they achieved was only extending the time of opening the website, BKA Vice President Martina Link told Deutsche Welle. Within the BKA reflection of „cybercrime status”, Link said the attack is more of an attack of low “level”.

But this attack DDos not very harmful, it was the last signal indicating the existence of new and dangerous development: Link tells of the solidification of cybergroups and hacker collectives with Russia or Ukraine. So they make corresponding attacks, as did “Kilnet”. During these attacks, „has the risk of affecting even impartial parties, even if they don't want it”, explains BKA vice president.

Sure is: The war in Ukraine is also fought in digital space and from there it reaches digital Germany. So Arne Schönbohm, president of the German Federal Security Office in Information Technical, (BSI) says about Deutsche Welle that: “given Russian attacks against Ukraine, BSI continues to see the risk increase for Germany”. Schönbohm urges enterprises, organisations and institutions to control security measures in information technology, and to adapt to the concrete state of danger. With the beginning of the Russian attack against Ukraine, there has been an increase in particular incidents in security of information technology, but they have been partially influential,” says the BSI chief.

The First Cyber Disaster

But many cyberattacks have greater consistencys, which are felt by every citizen. An example brought by Martina Link has to do with Anhalt-Bitterfeld. In early July last year, hackers had attacked local administration with the so-called Ransomware. This harmful software codes certain data and programs. Server and hardware had to be shut down. So social aid could no longer be provided, as could driving permits. Local authorities said efforts were made to make digital pressure through a cyber disaster. This had never happened in Germany.

During another attack last November, a software firm, whose programmes are used by a quarter of the doctors' offices in Germany, was affected. Server and network structure were encrypted and were no longer able to work.

Cybercrime is on the rise: THE BOK sees increases in attacks by 12 per cent, registering 150,000 cases. Experts think that the actual number of cases is much greater than recorded cases: When the digital association, Bitkom, asked more than 1,000 firms from all sectors last year, nine of the ten firms admitted to being victims of cyber attacks. The damage from theft, spying and sabotages for the German economy is estimated to total 223 billion euros. One figure, that Mrs. Link of BKA, repeated when she spoke of „the state of cybercrime”. Not forgetting to mention that the amount of damage will double in two years.

Corona also promoted cybercrime

For, says the report, „the significant achievement of the number of cases”, Martina Link gives several reasons: With the rise of digitalization, driven by the pandemic of Corona has been achieved to create many new options, which are even put into use. In addition to this, the economy of digital illegality has developed further: The report on the situation speaks of professional and sharer perpetrators. It also speaks of service economies capable of committing crimes, services offered in illegal and criminal markets. They offer anything that can be bought for Bitcoi, from credit card data networks to damaging software. And since wrongdoers share their jobs and work in different countries, police find it hard to track. The extraction quota is 30 per cent, being below the average police statistics of chemistry (PKS).

In view of the international involvement of the perpetrators, Martina Link requires cross-border co-operation. This thing has developed positively in recent years,” she told Deutsche Welle. And it tells of the example “Emotes” of last year. The police authorities of several countries had destroyed the infrastructure of this damaging software system in a joint operation.

The concern the criminal has is that she sees the growing mix of borders between criminals and state-run hackers. Which we would return to the aftermath of the war in Ukraine. At the end of February, 3,000 wind - producing plants in Germany could not be connected to making progress. It is done with internet and equipment connected to the network via a satellite operator. This one was attacked by hackers, just the morning of February 24, the day the war began. Perhaps because the same operators use Ukrainian authorities and the Ukrainian army.

In the latest annual 2021 summer report, the Office for Constitution Protection writes in Germany: „Russian intelligence services use huge amounts of cyberattacks, made for Russia's geopolitical interests.” And it provides a list of hacker groups that are supposed to be secret services. These include “Fancy Bear”, which has been active since 2004. But also “Snake”, a “counterattack with very illegal behavior, with great technical experience and international objectives. ”

Haya Schulman is a professor of Informatics at the Goethe University in Frankfurt and chief sector at the Fraunhofer Institute. As a cyberscientist, it's certain that in Germany cyberattacks have not been recorded to relate to the Ukrainian war, which does not mean they do not exist. Because successful cyberattacks do not reveal”, Shulman tells Deutsche Welle. It cites the attack on the German parliament, Bundestag in 2015. Or the attack on the Federation database in 2016. The attack network served for communication between the Chancellor's office, ministries and security authorities. Most of it is now cut off from the internet, and is deemed safe. /dw