For determining a malicious workload pattern, the following steps are conducted. A training set of workload patterns is collected during a predetermined workload situation. A subset of the training set is being determined as an archetype set, the archetype set being considered to be representative of the predetermined workload situation. A threshold value dependent on the training set and the archetype set, and an evaluation value dependent on a given workload pattern and the archetype set are calculated. The given workload pattern is determined to be malicious if the evaluation value fulfils a given condition with respect to the threshold value.