The Police Crime Prevention of the Federal States and the Federation (ProPK) and the Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) presented the new study ‘Digital Barometer 2022’ on the topic of IT security and cybercrime today. According to the results, German consumers use virus protection programs, secure passwords and an up-to-date firewall to protect themselves from attacks on the net, but at the same time, many have already been affected by cybercrime.
For this fourth Digital Barometer 2022, a total of 2,000 people between the ages of 16 and 69 in Germany were surveyed online as part of a representative poll between April and May 2022.
These are further insights:
- 29 percent of respondents said they had already been a victim of cybercrime. In the past year, 79 percent of consumers had already suffered some form of damage – amounting to an average of EUR 674 – because of cyber-attacks or scams.
- Many consumers said they protect themselves against attacks on the Internet by using up-to-date virus protection programs, secure passwords, and an up-to-date firewall.
- However, many neglected other important measures such as individual passwords for each account, and only 34 percent used the option of automatically installing software updates to close security gaps.
Stefanie Hinz, ProPK chairwoman, commented: "Many citizens have already invested time and money in protection against cybercrime. This makes it all the more important that they also regularly take care of software updates, as this is the only way to close dangerous security gaps. The Digital Barometer shows us exactly where the digital shoe pinches. This enables us to provide targeted information about cybercrime and how to protect ourselves. On the current fraud scam via messenger services, for example, we have developed easy-to-understand step-by-step instructions for optimal protection through settings in the respective applications."
Gerhard Schabhüser, Vice President of the BSI, emphasized: "With the Digital Barometer, we have laid important knowledge foundations in five years of cooperation between the BSI and ProPK. We learn how citizens protect themselves on the Internet or what experiences they have with cybercrime. We see that we need to motivate and guide users more strongly to put their knowledge of IT security into action."
Source: BSI
More information and the Digital Barometer 2022