Phishing and extortion: One in ten companies victims of cyberattacks

According to a survey, more than one in ten companies in Germany has been the victim of a cyberattack in the past twelve months. In about two percent of those surveyed, this was even the case several times in the period, as evidenced by a study of the TÜV Association (VdTÜV) presented on Monday in Berlin. "The attack situation for large companies is still significantly larger than for the small ones," said association president Michael Fübi.

About one-third of the attacks were so-called phishing attacks, it is said in which about account numbers, passwords or other sensitive data are skimmed off. One out of every five attacks came in the form of ransomware that paralyzed IT systems or prevented access to important company data with the aim of blackmailing the company.

"The point is that the quality of cyber threats has increased," said the President of the Federal Office for Information Security (BSI), Arne Schönbohm, at the presentation. He recalled the cyber attack on hospitals in Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland in the summer, in which the entire network of the hospital network was attacked by malware. Schoenbohm also mentioned pre-installed malicious software on several smartphones that the company had detected in the summer.

High risk-taking

Despite growing dangers, around one-third of companies said they were willing to accept IT security risks. This readiness is highest in the manufacturing industry, it is said. The rate is slightly lower in health care, construction, energy and transport. But here, too, every fourth company stated that they risked it.

Again BSI boss Schoenbohm warned against the Trojan Emotet, who therefore also stuck behind the attack on the administration in Neustadt on the Rübenberge in Lower Saxony. So far, however, it had managed to protect the government networks against the malware, while they daily in the economy cause further damage.