Hackers are increasingly stealing critical data.
Anyone who does not protect their IT system pays a high price.
The attacks hit almost all companies.
Berlin - Cyber attacks on German companies continue to increase.
What used to be a problem for DAX companies is now also affecting medium-sized companies and even companies with only a dozen employees.
According to a study by the digital association Bitkom, there are hardly any companies in Germany that are spared from cyber attacks.
As the study shows, almost nine out of ten companies were affected by data theft, espionage or sabotage in 2020 and 2021.
Above all, cases in which information and production systems are paralyzed by blackmailers have, according to the information, increased sharply.
Cyber crime in Germany: damage amount doubled
Overall, at around 220 billion euros per year, the amount of damage was most recently more than twice as high as in 2018 and 2019. At that time, the damage a year averaged 103 billion euros.
As the executives interviewed for the study reported, there have been IT security incidents in 59 percent of the companies in which home office is fundamentally possible since the beginning of the corona pandemic *.
"Simply sending employees home to work is not enough," says Bitkom President Achim Berg.
Your devices must be secured, communication channels to the company must be protected and the workforce must be made aware of the dangers of cybercrime.
Cyber crime: 40 percent of them are hobby hackers
According to the survey, 9 percent of companies see their business existence threatened by cyber attacks.
As the industry association also reports, 24 percent of companies have significantly increased their investments in IT security in response to the increased threat situation.
39 percent of the companies spent a little more money on it.
In addition to employees who intentionally or unintentionally cause damage, the companies estimate that hobby hackers are behind the attacks in 40 percent of cases.
At the same time, the proportion of attacks that can be assigned to the area of organized crime continued to rise.
According to the study, it is already 29 percent.
Cyber crime in Germany: Different attack methods
According to the companies, the infection of IT systems with malware has become the most popular attack method. 31 percent of the companies surveyed were victims of such attacks. The Bundeswehr also had to help out in such cases. 27 percent of the companies reported so-called DDoS attacks. With these targeted attacks, a server is so overloaded that it can no longer be reached.
According to the survey, spoofing, i.e. the pretense of a false identity in order to gain access to passwords, internal information or other sensitive data, has also increased significantly.
For example, the victim receives a request by email from a supposedly trustworthy account, such as a supervisor or a customer.
One in five companies reported such incidents this year.
In the survey in 2019, only eight percent of the companies were affected.
Cyber crime in Germany: where the attacks come from
In those cases where those affected were able to determine where an attack came from, 43 percent named Germany, 37 percent Eastern Europe, 23 percent Russia, 30 percent China * and 16 percent the USA.
In other EU countries, the companies only localized the attackers in 3 percent of the cases.
In some states in Eastern Europe, in Russia, China and even in Iran, he does not have the feeling that the state is taking action against these criminals there, says Berg. The Constitutional Protection Report for 2020 states: "Because of the close interweaving of the state, business and science in China, it is hardly possible in individual cases to differentiate between state-run industrial espionage and spying by competing companies."
The study makes it clear how important a resilient economy is for Germany as a business location, says the Vice President of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Sinan Selen. The authorities and business can only counter the threats posed by espionage and sabotage through intensive cooperation. The target area has grown by leaps and bounds due to the temporary relocation of many jobs home as a result of the corona pandemic, says Selen. He warns: “Home office must not become a risk here.”
(Dpa) * Merkur.de is an offer from IPPEN-MEDIA