German companies suffered an estimated 267 billion euros ($298 billion) in losses due to cyberattacks and other acts of sabotage in the past year, a 29% increase compared to the previous year.
According to a survey conducted by industry association Bitcom, 90% of companies expect more cyberattacks in the next 12 months. 70% of attacked companies attribute these attacks to organized crime. 81% of companies reported data theft, including the loss of customer data, logins and passwords, as well as intellectual property such as patents.
About 45% of companies surveyed attributed the attacks to China, up from 42% last year. Attacks from Russia ranked second, at 39%.
Ralf Wintergerst, the president of Bitkom, emphasized that the threat to the German economy is increasing and said that companies should strengthen their protection measures. As a result of the increase in attacks, companies have allocated 17% of their IT budgets to digital security, compared to 14% last year. But only 37% of companies said they have contingency plans for responding to supply chain security incidents.
