Cybercrime and sabotage cost German firms $300 billion in past year

BERLIN (Reuters) – Cybercrime and other acts of sabotage have cost German companies around 267 billion euros ($298 billion) in the past year, up 29% on the year before, according to a survey published on Wednesday.

Industry association Bitkom surveyed around 1,000 companies from all sectors and found that 90% expect more cyberattacks in the next 12 months, with the remaining 10% expecting the same level of attacks.

Some 70% of companies that were targeted attributed the attacks to organised crime, the survey found, adding 81% of companies reported data theft, including customer data, access data and passwords, as well as intellectual property such as patents.

Around 45% of companies said they could attribute at least one attack to China, up from 42% in the previous year. Attacks blamed on Russia came in second place at 39%.

“The threat situation for the German economy is worsening,” Bitkom President Ralf Wintergerst said in a statement, adding that companies must step up protective measures.

The increase in attacks has prompted companies to allocate 17% of their IT budget to digital security, up from 14% last year, but only 37% said they had an emergency plan to react to security incidents in their supply chain, the survey showed.

($1 = 0.8958 euros)

(Reporting by Christian Kraemer; Writing by Riham Alkousaa; Editing by Mark Potter)