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Computer screen: Money laundering and trafficking in synthetic drugs as the greatest current threats
Photo: Andrew Brookes / imago images/Westend61
According to a report by the international police organization Interpol, police officers currently see cybercrime and financial crimes as the greatest threats worldwide.
As the authority based in Lyon announced on Wednesday, it also assumes that these areas of crime will increase significantly in the coming years.
With 195 member countries, Interpol is the most important police organization in the world.
On Wednesday, the authority published a report on global crime trends for the first time.
"Understanding crime trends and anticipating them is an absolute foundation of police work," Interpol quoted Secretary General Juergen Stock as saying.
The report is not publicly available.
He should be available to law enforcement agencies.
More than 60 percent of the police officers surveyed for the report rated money laundering, internet fraud, phishing and ransomware as a major or very major risk.
In so-called ransomware attacks, computers are encrypted by malware and thus rendered unusable.
Phishing means data theft, for example with fake websites or emails.
According to the report, online fraud, money laundering and trafficking in synthetic drugs are seen as the greatest current threats in Europe.
A good three quarters of those surveyed also assume that cases of sexual abuse of children on the Internet will increase significantly in the next three to five years.
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