A Day in the Life of a Cyber Policeman

A cyber policeman’s work is, as the old saying says, never done. From small-scale scams hitting private individuals to multi-million dollar fraud targeting companies, and on to cyber espionage and attacks against critical infrastructure like hospitals – the list of potential victims and attack vectors is growing constantly as our society becomes increasingly digitalized. And the borderless nature of the Internet causes further challenges for cyber policing, because victim and perpetrator can quite simply be worlds apart.

dotmagazine caught up with Dirk Kunze, Head of the Cyber Crime Competence Center for the State Police of North Rhine Westphalia, in Germany, to find out how his unit responds to critical incidents, what companies need to do to protect themselves better, and what keeps him awake at night.

Listen to the around 18-minute interview above, download it for later, or jump to the individual questions:

1. What is the day in the life of a cyber policeman like?
   

2. What are the most common IT Security crimes that your department investigates? 

3. What types of attacks give you sleepless nights?

4. Are there many attacks on our critical infrastructure?

5. Are there limits to what law enforcement can achieve in dealing with cyber criminality?

6. Going back to company attacks, what are the most common forms of attacks against companies and what motivates them?

7. Apart from clicking on the link in the email, what are other classic mistakes that companies make when it comes to IT security?

8. Finally, are there emerging threat scenarios for company or corporate IT Security, and if so, what are they?