Austrian cybercrime rate doubles in 2012: report

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VIENNA, Sept. 12 -- Cybercrime in Austria saw a sharp increase in 2012 with the rate doubling from the previous year, the Austrian Federal Criminal Police Office (BK) Cybercrime-Report 2012 revealed Thursday.

The BK also said unreported figures would take the 10,231 reports of cyber crimes for the year much higher.

It added that resolved cases in 2012 fell to around 25 percent, while 47 percent of suspects were aged 25 to 40 years old.

Cause for the increase was the ever-increasing professional nature of cyber-criminal outfits which were becoming more networked to each other globally, along with the increased use of malicious software. At the same time, anonymizing services and other new technologies make tracking efforts for authorities more difficult.

A new target for the criminals has been smartphones, the BK said, with a rising number of users using telebanking and making other electronic money transfers via their phones, their PIN and TAN numbers submitted by, and often even stored on, the phones.

The Federal Ministry for the Interior implemented a cybercrime strategy in 2012, the main component of which was the establishment of the Cybercrime Competence Center, through which the BK coordinates efforts to combat cybercrime on a national level.

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