German companies report more Russia, China cyberattacks – economy loses US$160 billion a year

Cyberattacks on companies in Germany are increasingly being carried out from Russia and China, according to a study by the digital association Bitkom published in Berlin on Friday.

Of the more than 1,000 companies surveyed across sectors, 46 per cent were able to trace attacks back to Russia this year, compared to 23 per cent in 2021.

Another 42 per cent of attacked companies are certain that they were attacked from China, compared to 30 per cent in 2021.

Just over one-third of attacked companies (37 per cent) were unable to determine the geographical origin of the attacks.

Meanwhile, 29 per cent of those affected say they were attacked from Germany and 25 per cent suspect that the attackers were based in Eastern Europe.

Hackers with malicious intentions from the United States (18 per cent) and other countries in the European Union (11 per cent) played a subordinate role.

When asked about the origin of the cyberattacks, companies could select multiple answers.

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Sinan Selen, Vice-President of the German domestic intelligence services, said that these self-assessments by companies coincided with the findings of his agency.

When analysing the attacks, he said, it is possible to determine a kind of fingerprint of the attackers.

“In many cases, we can trace the origin very precisely, sometimes down to specific districts” from which the attacks originated.

According to the Bitkom study, cyberattacks are responsible for almost three quarters (72 per cent) of the total damage caused to the German economy by data theft, sabotage and industrial espionage.

This corresponds to about US$160 billion and is a significant increase compared to the previous year, when only 63 per cent and thus about US$138 billion could be attributed to cyberattacks.