recommend
The theft of user accounts startles the Germans: Within hours the BSI has registered 12.6 million inquiries from concerned citizens. For background fact, there are new details.
After millions of theft of online access has already been processed 12.6 million inquiries about Internet users, the Federal Office for Security in Information Technology (BSI) to Wednesday noon. That said BSI president Michael Hange.
Among them were 884,000 victims. The Authority was trying to cope with the onslaught of requests, Hange said on the sidelines of a conference on cyber security. The test site was on Tuesday temporarily unreachable because many concerned citizens wanted to check their mail data.
The authorities already knew more about the case. The delay in the alert action was inevitable, Hange said.
The supreme authority for IT security in Germany had announced on Tuesday that 16 million user accounts have been hijacked. The warning spread very quickly.
A new dimension
BSI web page, could check on the people, whether they are concerned, after a short time went under the flood of inquiries to its knees. Hange said the site had now been reprogrammed.
The Authority is in the process to solve the congestion problems. The rush of inquiries have a new dimension.
for the BSIHange said the BSI have already experienced before December of the theft. Previously, he had told Bayerischer Rundfunk, the authorities knew of it since December. Just before Christmas, the BSI then got the release for it to issue a warning, he said.
“Such an action must, however, be extremely well prepared,” he said. The BSI have, for example, used the time to program a security check and resolve privacy issues. The chief authorities assured: “We have made very quickly There’s nothing faster..”
prosecutors discovered the data
The stolen records contained According to the BSI usually an email address and a password. Researchers and prosecutors were pushed to the data and have it transferred to the Federal Office.
Not all affected mail addresses would still be used, stressed Hange. Many of the captured addresses were not from Germany, but from other EU countries. It should therefore be assumed that behind the theft put an international network. Identity theft is known as a form of crime. The dimension of the current event, but spectacular.
The access emerged in the analysis of botnets. The networks are hijacked computers that have been infected often without the knowledge of users with malicious software. Criminals use such zombie computers, for example, to mass e-mails to send advertising or malicious programs.
In Cyber ??Security Conference Hange said: “With botnets can easily swindle millions of dollars.” Many hackers go there simply to make money. From cyber attacks all are affected: citizens, government and business
.
Alone on the power of the federal government, there are, according to BSI 2000 to 3000 attacks per day. About five attacks a day are at such a high technical level that an intelligence background was to insinuate.
Many companies are, according to the experts victim of cyber attacks, these silent for fear of reputational damage but often.
Read here how you can protect yourself.
© Axel Springer SE 2014. All rights reserved
No comments:
Post a Comment