The German Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) has published a report on The State of IT Security in Germany in 2023, and the number one threat for consumers is… identity theft.
The thing is, you can protect your devices and your online privacy as much as possible, but what happens when some organization which you have trusted with your personal information gets breached?
The report states:
> “For consumers, the issue of data leaks was prominent in the reporting period (2023). In many cases, these were related to ransomware attacks, in which cybercriminals exfiltrated large amounts of data from organizations in order to later threaten to publish it unless a ransom or hush money was paid.“
In addition to data breaches, there is the danger of information stealers that allow cybercriminals to obtain various types of personal data, such as login details for various online services, and financial information. The stolen data may also include website cookies and biometric data that can be used by criminals to defraud the victim.
Cybercriminals are also getting better at using these data. For example, the report mentions that on one of the largest underground marketplaces for identity data, cybercriminals offered interested parties a browser plug-in that made it possible to import stolen credentials directly into the web browser, allowing criminals to assume the victim’s digital identity with just a few clicks.
We've previously talked about the dangers of data brokers that, by trading and buying, are accumulating massive troves of personal data. Now, with the mass availability of Artificial Intelligence tools, it becomes so much easier to correlate all these data sets and piece together a complete profile of everyone affected.
As you can see, it’s usually not the victim’s fault that their data become available to cybercriminals. In many cases, there isn’t even that much that they could have done about it. Some services simply are not available in the offline world anymore, and we have no choice than to trust an organization with our information.
So, all we can do is make sure we come prepared to act when a data breach affects us, and keep an eye on how much we share and how much others will be able to find out about us.
If you want to find out how much of your own data is currently exposed online, you can try our free Digital Footprint scan. Fill in the email address you’re curious about (it’s best to submit the one you most frequently use) and we’ll send you a report.
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