© REUTERS / BENOIT TESSIER
Since 2017, cybercrime investigators from the Federal Criminal Police Office (BK) have more than 5.2 million euros secured in cryptocurrencies. The funds confiscated in various cases are transferred to specially set up “government wallets” Secured and in the best case referred back to the injured party. Minister of the Interior Gerhard Karner (ÖVP) named the fight against computer crime on Thursday in the Cybercrime Competence Center (C4) of the BK in Vienna as a “key focus”.
From 2021 to the previous year there was an increase of more than 30 percent in cybercrime reports, explained Karner. The number of processed cases increased from 46,179 to 60,195. Last week in the Council of Ministers, the government decided to tighten the penalties for cybercrime offenses. “This area is very, very diverse,” Karner emphasized the range of fraud, hacker attacks and ransom attacks with attempts at blackmail using encryption software.
1,000 government wallets
The local investigators have around 1,000 “authority wallets” available for official acts, it was explained at the media event. Wallets are “digital wallets” in which bitcoins or other cryptocurrencies are stored. Every police officer has the opportunity to secure bitcoins and transmit them to the “authority wallets”. Because of the success of the approach, the methodology has been adopted by other countries, explained Klaus Mits, Head of Cybercrime Department in the BK. If the seized cryptocurrencies are forfeited by the court, the C4 is authorized to transfer the sums of money to the respective courts.
“We conduct our own investigations into the dark web and support subordinate agencies with dark web investigations,” reported Andreas Dengg, head of the Darknet department. As an example, he cited the theft of GIS data, where the hacker was caught in the Netherlands. “We try to monitor the Darknet and if there is a connection to Austria, we will work independently.” The investigations would run at a very low level of the Darknet, for example with an in-house tool “which will soon be rolled out to all departments in Austria,” said Dengg.
Electronics lab and multimedia forensics
In the premises of the C4 in Vienna-Leopoldstadt there is a Electronic laboratorywhere destroyed or damaged devices are restored, and a Automotive Forensics, which reads data from vehicle operating systems and car keys, for example. Not only can Movement data of the vehicle evaluate, but also personal data, such as which mobile phone was last connected to the car or which key was last used.
Another department that Multimedia-Forensics, evaluates video recordings and photos and extrapolates details from the images that are difficult to recognize. In the case of the boy who drowned in the Kitzbüheler Ache in St. Johann in Tirol, for example, it was found that the bottle with which the child’s father was said to have been knocked unconscious was already in the pram, it said at the media event. In the case of the tobacconist who was set on fire by her boyfriend in Vienna-Alsergrund in March 2021, the C4’s multimedia forensics were able to evaluate the surveillance videos from a burned hard drive, so that there was evidence and not just circumstantial evidence against the perpetrator. A large part of the department’s work relates to the evaluation of license plates that are difficult to read on surveillance videos, it said.
BK department head Mits praised the committed employees and the technical framework. The team is the “spearhead of the Austrian police in the fight against cybercrime” and is also referred to as “Cyber-CobraThe C4 has a “high reputation at home and abroad” and is seen on an equal footing with comparable institutions. The current workforce of 90 employees – 60 detectives specializing in cybercrime and 30 external specialists – according to BK director Andreas Holzer – as already planned – continue on 128 people increased become. “I am hopeful that we will reach fullness by the end of 2024,” added Mits. “One of the most important points is that the population itself is careful when using the Internet,” reminded Karner. “But if something happens, we’ll be there,” the interior minister referred to the C4 experts.
