It affects companies worldwide, British hospitals, Russian ministries, Deutsche Bahn - and individual consumers. Hardly anyone is safe from online attacks anymore. Attacks using blackmail software in particular have increased recently. The BSI's report on the state of IT security in Germany in 2017 also looks at trends such as the Internet of Things, giving cause for concern.

What is the extent of cybercrime?

Nobody knows exactly, because not all crimes are reported. Last year, the police registered a good 83,000 cases of cybercrime across Germany. According to the Federal Criminal Police Office, this resulted in a loss of 51 million euros. "However, police statistics and situation reports only reflect a small part of the reality," emphasized BKA President Holger Münch recently. There is a large dark field. After all, many companies also conceal attacks for fear of damaging their reputation. This is why some experts estimate the annual damage to be in the billions.

Attacks using blackmail software such as WannaCry in particular have increased in recent times. What is it all about?

In ransomware attacks, criminals send out programs that infect computers and block data. The user can no longer access their content unless they pay the ransom demanded - which is usually paid in the digital currency Bitcoin. This is what happened in May with the global WannaCry attack, which infected more than 300,000 computers in 150 countries, including Deutsche Bahn and British hospitals. Or more recently in Russia and Ukraine, when the BadRabbit blackmail Trojan hit the Kiev metro, among other places, according to initial investigations.

What protective measures are there in times of flourishing cybercrime - both for individuals and for companies?

The most important rules are probably well known, but it seems that they cannot be mentioned often enough: Never use the same password for different Internet accounts. Use difficult passwords with at least twelve characters as well as lower and upper case letters and special characters. Important data should also be kept separate from the Internet, updates should be installed regularly and backup files should be created. Companies are also called upon to train their employees extensively on the subject of internet security.

What needs to be considered when it comes to ransomware in particular?

The following applies as protection against blackmail Trojans: always keep the software up to date and use a firewall that monitors data traffic - even within your own network, so that one device cannot infect others. And: Don't click on links in emails hastily. Larger networks should be divided into sensibly small segments. Then an attack will not lead to a complete infection of the entire company or government network

More and more consumers are turning to the Internet of Things. Does this trend also harbor dangers?

Increasing networking means that the Internet of Things is creating many new opportunities - for example in the control of household appliances or home monitoring. On the other hand, it also increases the risk of software failures or hacker attacks. "Every group of devices that will be connected to the internet in the future, from coffee machines to toasters, can be misused for cyber attacks," warned Paul Arndt from technology consultancy Invensity. Experts estimate that in three years' time, there will be at least 23 million smart home devices in Germany alone that can be controlled from the internet using their own IP address.