Nearly 20,000 online crimes were reported in Euskadi between January 1 and October 31, most of which were cyber scams. The economic impact of this cyber scam could amount to 26 million euros in the first ten months of the year.
Please note | EITB MEDIUM
The Basque government presented the new awareness campaign today in Bilbao promote safety and encourage Safe online shopping behaviordue to the increase this year in cyber scams in Euskadi.
Under the motto “Cibergabonak – Don’t give it to you with cheese”, the campaign aims to make citizens aware of the risks of electronic commerce, especially during the Christmas period, when purchases increase.
To do this, the Basque executive will use a mix of traditional media, together with other online content and on social networks more aimed at young people, such as YouTube, Spotify, Tik Tok or Instagram, among others. The campaign will be active from next Wednesday, the eve of World Cybersecurity Day, and will continue until December 22.
The Minister of Security, Josu Erkoreka, the Minister of Economy and Finance, Pedro Azpiazu, and the Minister of Tourism, Trade and Consumption, Javier Hurtado, explained during the presentation of the campaign that the increasing use of social networks and social media Digital transactions are reflected in an increase in electronic commerce and internet banking, and this increase in the number of transactions parallels the evolution of cyber scams, increasingly sophisticated.
According to Erkoreka, 1 in 4 crimes in the Basque Country already takes place via the internet. According to data from the Ertzaintza, Between January 1 and October 31 this year, 19,129 crimes occurred online compared to 56,805 in person. The vast majority, 95%, are cybercrimes against property, the most common of which is cyberfraud: 89%.
So far this year there have been 17,061 cyber scamsa 29% increase compared to the same period of the previous year: 52% in Bizkaia, 32% in Gipuzkoa and 16% in Araba.
The Security Council member pointed out that cyber scams are socially considered less serious crimes “because they do not threaten the integrity of people, but the truth is that they cause significant economic losses to people, entities and companies.” “To a large extent, we are talking about fraudulent accusations or accusations of unknown origin where the victims are unaware of how they have been defrauded,” he added.
He economic impact of cyber scams reported in Euskadi in these first 10 months of 2023 could amount to 26 million euros. A third of them do not exceed the defrauded amount of € 100.
According to Erkoreka, “We are facing a new and unknown form of crime that is on the rise and that forces institutions, companies and people to protect our cyber.”
In this sense, the Minister of Security recalled that Euskadi already has a Basque Cybersecurity Agency, Cyberzaintza, and has announced the upcoming creation of an Agency. specialized unit of the Ertzaintza in criminal investigation of cybercrime.
For his part, Pedro Azpiazu recalled that his department “has been working with financial entities for quite some time and that cybercrime is one of the issues that concerns us most, because of the helplessness suffered by both the people affected and the financial entities themselves.”
“It is from 2018 onwards,” said Azpiazu, “that cybercriminals began to mass-target their attacks directly to the entities’ customers, mainly through phishing. New deception methods appear every year; you could say that phishing “reinvents itself.”
Source: EITB
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