The Federal Criminal Police Office recorded 46,179 reports of cyber attacks last year, an increase of 28.6 percent compared to 2020. These figures were given by Othmar Nagl, Chairman of the Institute for Insurance Economics and Director General of Oberösterreichische Versicherung. However, the number of unreported cases is likely to be much higher, and many would still underestimate the danger of an attack.
According to a study by the auditor KPMG, most companies in Austria do not yet have a holistic perspective when it comes to cybercrime. Cyber security requirements are currently not met in three out of four companies. In addition to the financial damage, company data and customer confidence are also at stake.
Jürgen Weiss, Managing Director of Ares Cyber Intelligence from Traun, said that most cyber attacks on companies took place just before the weekend: “From Friday afternoon at 3 p.m. the perpetrators are undisturbed because often nobody is there anymore.” Most of the time, the victims received a link to get into a separate internet window, and a displayed amount that is required. The nature of the attacks has changed: While it used to be a question of encrypting the data, it is now about its destruction and industrial espionage, Weiss said. The actual attack occurs with the ransom demand, but “three to twelve weeks earlier, when the perpetrators settle in”. Signs of this are folders and files that disappear, or Word documents that close themselves.
In order to protect yourself against an attack, it is advisable to keep the systems up to date, to subject passwords to multi-factor authentication and also to be aware of devices such as fire alarms or surveillance cameras that perpetrators could use to gain access to data.
Andreas Klauser, Upper Austrian CEO of the Salzburg crane manufacturer Palfinger, also sees a need for politicians to set up a central coordination or contact point in the event of large-scale cyber attacks. “It can really affect anyone,” said Klauser, whose company was affected by an attack at the beginning of 2021 and suffered damage “in the mid-single-digit million range”. What lessons did Palfinger draw from this? “We also kept our most important data in printed form in A4 folders in four fireproof safes,” said Klauser.
Source: Nachrichten
