Survey: 58 percent of German companies attacked by hackers

2023-10-10 06:52:51

Survey 58 percent of German companies attacked by hackers

According to a study, 58 percent of German companies were attacked by hackers one or more times last year. Photo

© Nicolas Armer/dpa/Illustration

Internationally, the security authorities’ fight against the wave of cybercrime does not seem to be bearing fruit so far. This is what a survey suggests.

The number of cyber attacks on German companies has risen according to one Research by the British insurer Hiscox rose again last year. According to the company’s Munich-based German subsidiary, 58 percent of German companies were attacked by hackers one or more times. That was 12 percentage points more than a year earlier.

According to the Hiscox comparison with selected countries, the German economy is relatively often the target of hackers. In the new edition of the annual comparison of eight countries, 53 percent of the companies surveyed reported cyber attacks. There were more hacker attacks on companies in Ireland than in Germany.

The Cyber ​​Readiness Report is based on a survey of 5,005 executives, IT managers and professionals in Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Great Britain, Ireland and the USA. In Germany there were 963 respondents. The analysis is written on behalf of the insurer by experts from the US consulting company Forrester Consulting.

Smaller medium-sized companies are increasingly in focus

According to Hiscox, it is striking that cybercriminals are now increasingly attacking small and medium-sized businesses. In all eight countries, the proportion of companies attacked with fewer than ten employees was 36 percent last year, an increase of half compared to 2021.

Hiscox put the average financial damage from a successful cyber attack at a good $16,000, slightly less than in previous years. Germany is roughly in the average of the eight countries.

In Germany, the most common attack method for successful attacks is compromised business email. Also known in the English-speaking world as “fake president fraud,” hackers use stolen email addresses to pose as executives and direct payments to their own accounts. This type of attack is obviously successful in many cases: In Germany, 43 percent of companies suffered financial damage because payments were redirected to hacker accounts.

dpa