Damage to German companies from cyber-attacks by hackers reached 267bn Euros
In Germany, more than 80 percent of companies have suffered from the theft of their data over the past 12 months, as a result of which the damage from cyber-attacks in 2024 has already reached a record 267bn Euros, TASS reports
The results of a study conducted by the Federal Association for Information Technology, Bitkom, state that 72 percent of German companies became victims of cyber-attacks in 2023, and losses caused by hackers amounted to 205.9bn Euros. The previous record was set in 2021, when attackers caused 223.5bn Euros in damage. About 70 percent of companies affected by cyber-attacks noticed that organised crime was responsible for them (a year ago, 61 percent of firms shared this opinion). Another 20 percent (7 percent in 2023) of hacking victims are sure that ‘foreign intelligence services’ contributed to the attacks.
“Security threats to the German economy are escalating. Enterprises should continue to strengthen protective measures. This applies to both cyber-attacks and ‘classic’ crimes like wiretapping or theft of paper documents," Bitkom President Ralph Winterhurst commented on the results of the study. He believes that the topic of IT security has become particularly important recently, ensuring which ‘should become the task of company management everywhere’.
In its research running from April 15th to June 10th, Bitkom conducted a telephone survey of over 1,003 companies from different sectors of the German economy with ten or more employees and an annual turnover of 1m Euros.
