German firms report rising cyber threat from foreign intelligence services, study shows<\/p>\n
China and Russia were the main suspected e<\/p>\n
The workspace of a cybersecurity agent is pictured during the opening of Germany\u2019s new IT Security Centre the national cyber defence body BSI in Bonn, Germany, February 6, 2024. REUTERS<\/p>\n
German companies are increasingly being targeted by cyberattacks that they suspect are linked to foreign intelligence services, a study by digital industry association Bitkom showed on Wednesday<\/p>\n
More \u200bthan one in three companies hit by cyberattacks, or 37%, said they \u200chad attributed at least one incident in the past 12 months to a foreign intelligence service. That was up from 28% a year earlier and more than five times the 7% recorded \u200bin 2023<\/p>\n
China and Russia were the main suspected f the affected companies, 52% traced \u2060at least one attack to China and 49% to Russia, while 9% attributed \u200ban attack to Iran. All three countries have denied conducting cyberattacks abroad<\/p>\n
German officials have warned \u200bin recent weeks of a growing threat from cyber and hybrid attacks<\/p>\n
Bitkom said organised crime remained the leading es between criminal groups and \u200bstate intelligence services are often blurred, Bitkom President Ralf Wintergerst said<\/p>\n
“Intelligence agencies make use \u200bof criminal structures; conversely, criminals are given free rein as long as they choose their targets in \u200cline \u2060with political directives,” he said<\/p>\n
Annual total damage from data theft, industrial espionage and sabotage amounts to at least \u20ac211 billion, said Bitkom, which represents more than 2,200 companies in the digital economy and supports moves to strengthen cybersecurity<\/p>\n
The study also pointed to a growing \u200buse of AI, with \u200btraditional methods such as \u2060ransomware declining and AI-enabled attacks including robocalls and deepfakes causing greater damage<\/p>\n
Eight in 10 companies expect attackers to increase their use \u200bof AI. “Artificial intelligence is fundamentally changing the nature of attacks,” Wintergerst \u200bsaid<\/p>\n
The share \u2060of companies that feel very well prepared for cyberattacks fell to 43% from 50% a year earlier. Still, fewer companies said a successful cyberattack could threaten their survival, down to \u206045% \u200bfrom 59% a year earlier<\/p>\n
Cybersecurity spending was unchanged, with \u200bIT security accounting for an average 18% of companies’ overall IT budgets. More than 1,000 companies were surveyed \u200bfor the representative study<\/p>\n
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