Germany advances cyber defence as AI-driven attacks rise

German authorities warn that cyber attacks increasingly use artificial intelligence. In the former year 1,041 ransomware and extortion incidents were reported, up from 950 the year before. The federal government is preparing a new cyber‑defence law that would permit active defensive measures and has established a joint centre to counter hybrid threats.

A coordinated Europol, BKA and Microsoft operation employed AI to dissect the malware families Amadey and Stealc. The effort led to the shutdown of more than 200 command‑and‑control servers and ended criminal control of over 18,000 compromised computers worldwide.

Security researchers at Sekoia highlighted the "ChocoPoC" case, where attackers injected malicious Python dependencies into exploit repositories on GitHub, targeting analysts rather than enterprises. Florian Kraus, General Manager of DAGMA GmbH, stressed that effective cyber defence relies on correctly interpreting information and avoiding reactionary tool proliferation.