Cybercrime and sabotage cost German firms $300 billion in the past year

Cybercrime and other acts of sabotage cost German companies about 267 billion euros ($298 billion) in the past year, up 29 percent from the previous year, according to a survey published Wednesday.

Industry association Bitkom surveyed around 1,000 companies across all sectors and found that 90% expect more cyber attacks in the next 12 months, with the remaining 10% expecting the same level of attacks.

About 70 percent of targeted companies attributed the attacks to organized crime, the survey found, adding that 81 percent of companies reported theft of data, including customer data, access data and passwords, as well as intellectual property such as patents.

About 45 percent of companies said they could attribute at least one attack to China, up from 42 percent the previous year. Attacks attributed to Russia came in second place, with 39%.

“The threat situation for the German economy is getting worse,” Bitkom chairman Ralf Wintergerst said in a statement, adding that companies must step up protection measures.

The rise in attacks has led companies to allocate 17% of their IT budget to digital security, up from 14% last year, but only 37% said they have a contingency plan to react to security incidents in their supply chain , the survey shows.

(1 USD = 0.8958 euros)

(Reporting by Christian Kraemer; Writing by Riham Alkousaa; Editing by Mark Potter)

TOPICS
Fraud Germany