Cyber ​​attacks

More than one in ten companies in Germany was the subject of a cyber attack in the past twelve months, according to a survey.

Survey results indicate that more and more companies are becoming victims of digital attacks. In about two percent of those surveyed, this was even the case several times in the period, as evidenced by a study of the TUV Association (VdTUV) presented on Monday in Berlin. "The attack situation for large companies is still significantly larger than for the small ones," said association president Michael Fübi.

About one-third of the attacks involved so-called phishing attacks in which, for example, account numbers, passwords or other sensitive data are skimmed off. Every fifth attack came in the form of ransomware that cripples IT systems or prevents access to important company data with the aim of blackmailing the company.

"The point is that the quality of cyber threats has increased," said the President of the Federal Office for Information Security (BSI), Arne Schönbohm, on Monday at the presentation. He recalled the cyberattack on hospitals in Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland in the summer, in which the entire network of the hospital network was attacked by malware. Schonbohm also mentioned pre-installed malicious software on several smartphones that the company had detected in the summer.

Despite growing dangers, around one-third of companies said they were willing to accept IT security risks. This readiness is highest in the manufacturing industry, it is said. The quota was slightly lower in the health care sector and in the construction, energy and transport sectors, but every fourth company stated that it was willing to accept risks.

Again BSI boss Schoenbohm warned against the Trojan Emotet, who therefore also stuck behind the attack on the administration in Neustadt on the Rübenberge in Lower Saxony. So far, however, it had managed to protect the government networks against the malware, while they daily in the economy cause further damage.