German industrial firms suffer 43 bln euros in damage from criminal attacks: study

Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-13 22:32:37|Editor: yan
Video PlayerClose

BERLIN, Sept. 13 (Xinhua) -- German industrial companies incurred a total cost of 43 billion euros (50 billion U.S. dollars) from criminal sabotage, data theft and espionage in 2016 and 2017, a study published on Thursday by the German Information Technology Association (Bitkom) finds.

According to the study, seven out of ten companies (68 percent) with activities the crucial economic sector in Germany had become victims of such attacks during the past two years.

The findings were based on a representative survey of 503 business leaders and security officers.

"With their globally-leading brands, the German industrial manufacturing sector is particularly interesting for criminals," Bitkom president Achim Berg said at the presentation of the study in Berlin.

Berg emphasized that business leaders who failed to invest in Information Technology (IT) security were putting their companies at risk. He noted that a third (32 percent) of businesses polled had experienced the theft of IT or telecommunications devices in 2016 and 2017, while a quarter (23 percent) had suffered from breaches of their digital systems where sensitive data was accessed.

Commenting on the study, Thomas Haldenwang, vice-president of the German office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), highlighted that illegal transfers of knowledge and technology, as well as economic sabotage, were already a "mass phenomenon" rather than only affecting a handful of large companies.

"Aside from classical economic espionage, we are increasingly occupied with attacks in which it must be assumed that malware has been introduced into IT systems with the goal of preparing acts of sabotage," Haldenwang added.

From the start of 2016 until the end of 2017, digital sabotage attacks were reported by 19 percent of industrial companies. Almost half of respondents said that IT attacks of some form had caused damage to their operations, with 11 percent specifically identifying digital communication, including emails and messenger services, as having been targeted by criminals seeking to access private information.

In nearly two thirds of cases (63 percent) where attacks had taken place, the culprit was identified as being a current or former member of staff. Whereas 17 percent of companies indicated having become the victims of organized crime, a relatively small share of 11 percent pointed to foreign intelligence services as the suspected perpetrators, according to the study.

TOP STORIES
EDITOR’S CHOICE
MOST VIEWED
EXPLORE XINHUANET
010020070750000000000000011105521374659081