Survey: 15% of German firms subject to cyberattack in last 12 months

Yahoo

11-06-2025

Approximately one in seven German companies has been affected by a cyberattack in the past 12 months, according to a new survey published on Wednesday.
Some 15% of companies with at least 10 employees reported at least one IT security incident over the past year, the representative survey conducted on behalf of technical inspection authority TÜV found.
The number of successful hacker attacks rose by 4 percentage points compared to a survey two years ago, the Berlin-based association said.
However, the majority of affected companies reported that they did not suffer any damage as a result of the cyberattacks.
Some reported minor damage, and only very few reported serious or even existential damage.
"The German economy is in the crosshairs of state and criminal hackers who want to steal sensitive data, extort money or sabotage important supply structures," said TÜV president Michael Fübi.
One criminal tactic, for example, is to encrypt or steal company data and then blackmail the company, he said.
The most common method used by hackers targeting German companies is phishing, which involves emails sent to employees to trick them into clicking on a link which then allows the attackers to infect the company network with malware.