Off the wire
• BiH FM calls for further improvement of economic cooperation with Albania  • Egypt's Alexandria holds int'l conference on underwater antiquities   • Oil prices decline amid OPEC-deal doubt  • Bamba wins fourth stage of Faso cycling  • U.S. dollar falls against most major currencies  • 43 countries to participate in 2017 Eurovision Song Contest in Ukraine  • Spanish stock market closes lower on Monday, holds on to monthly gains  • Well-known Zimbabwean lion Jericho dies  • Austria's economy to grow 1.5 pct annually to 2021: institute  • Interview: Keep beauty of nature for future generations: Turkish experts  
You are here: 　 Home

Cyber crime in Austria sees 11-pct increase in 2015

Xinhua, November 1, 2016 Adjust font size:

Instances of cyber crimes in Austria increased 11 percent in 2015 to reach over 10,000, the Federal Criminal Police Office (BK) said on Monday.

In its 2015 Cyber Crime Report, the BK said the increase in 2015, which followed a 10-percent decrease the year earlier, was partly due to perpetrators having improved their encryption techniques and their ability to remain anonymous.

The sub-category of Internet fraud increased 12.6 percent to 7,473 cases, the BK said.

Also on the increase was digital blackmail, in which malicious software is used to lock data and systems and for which a ransom is demanded for decryption, often in the form of Bitcoin payment.

Other typical cyber crimes reported included data corruption and hacking, child pornography, and the drug trade via darknet.

The report stated that the percentage of cases solved increased 0.7 percent to a total of 41.5 percent.

The BK said that going forward it anticipated that cyber crime would further meld together with classical criminal acts such as extortion, fraud, and bullying.

It acknowledged the scope of such crimes was boundless, with perpetrators able to commit these acts remotely, and if needed, obtain support from criminal providers such as those on darknet. Endit