Criminals shamelessly exploit users' uncertainty in the wake of the General Data Protection Regulation
As the Tagesschau reports, there has been a veritable flood of phishing attacks and emails for weeks.
“Please confirm that we can continue to send you our updates,” the messages read. But the criminals only care about one thing: the users' personal data such as passwords.
“That was hardly surprising. “There are a lot of phishing attacks during major events and things that have news value, like the General Data Protection Regulation or the World Cup, and that’s what’s happening right now,”
says Arne Schönbohm, head of the Federal Office for Information Security (BSI).
The cybercriminals use an input mask to try to get the user’s name, password or bank details. The number of unreported cases is high:
“These are always estimates because we cannot monitor every single account. But there has been a significant increase in attempts to fish for data,”
said Schönbohm. Seven out of ten companies surveyed stated that they had been victims of cyber attacks in recent years.
And what about private individuals?
Ralf Scherfling from the North Rhine-Westphalia Consumer Center knows:
“It’s mainly about banks and savings banks, Paypal, Amazon. But it can also be online games and ministries. Criminals will try anything that they hope people will fall for. If a certain alcohol level does that, that’s enough for the criminals.”
Above all, the fear of penalties and “doing something wrong with the new General Data Protection Regulation” plays into the hands of the fraudsters. This uncertainty makes it particularly easy for them.
“There is uncertainty about how what should be applied, but there is also a need for improvement in communication,”
said Scherfling. According to a survey by the Federal Association of Medium-Sized Businesses, some companies wanted to withdraw from digitalization.
I think this is the wrong move. We have to look into it intensively.”
Until then:
- Never click on a link in unexpected and dubious emails,
- do not open attached files and
- do not respond to the email.
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