German accounts are very popular
Anyone who uses online banking and has a bank card knows: caution is the top priority when withdrawing money from ATMs as well as when shopping online. But that’s often not enough, because German accounts are a popular target for criminals.
Anyone who uses the internet for his or her financial affairs should always be on their guard – even if the risk of losing money through unauthorized access is not limited to just online. Ultimately it is enough to have a bank card.
Deutsche Bank customers particularly at risk
In order to get your money, criminal programs can run through random combinations until they land a hit – the procedure is called brute forcing. According to experts, skillful thieves can “guess” your card data in just a few seconds (Source: NordVPN). They often check with transfers of small amounts whether you or your bank can catch up with them.
According to security experts, whose results were collected by the software provider NordVPN, data from German cardholders is particularly popular on dark web marketplaces. From over 4 million records worldwide to real accounts 31,373 bank accounts from Germany can be assigned with certainty.
These stand popular with criminals: With an average of 17.89 US dollars (15.90 euros), the price for a data set of German account holders is almost twice as high as in international comparison. In Germany, credit cards are affected a little more often than debit cards, and overall more Visa cards are affected than Maestro cards.
What bank customers can do if the account has been hijacked
The problem: Customers can hardly protect themselves. Payment service providers and banks, on the other hand, have to keep their security systems up to date. Multi-factor authentication, for example, can help against brute-forcing attacks. If an SMS code or fingerprint is also requested via smartphone before a transfer is made, this makes it more difficult for remote thieves.
However, the only safe way is not to have a credit or debit card at all – practically impossible for German bank customers. So you have to be careful: Check your account activity regularly. For example, if you notice inexplicable small amounts, inform your bank. Further steps can be taken there, if necessary you will quickly receive a new card while the old access data will be deactivated.
Brute forcing not only works with bank data, passwords can also be cracked in this way:
A NordVPN is still a ray of hope: A risk index between 0 and 1 was calculated from the available data, such as the number of affected cards compared to the number of residents. With a value of 0.4, the probability that your card data will be cracked is in the lower midfield.
