53% of German companies victim of cyberattacks: Survey

A multi-country survey by the British insurer Hiscox shows that security authorities around the world are struggling in the fight against cybercrime, reported dpa.

According to the Hiscox comparison with selected countries, German businesses are relatively frequent targets of hackers. The latest edition of the annual comparison of eight countries shows 53% of the companies surveyed reported cyberattacks.

The Cyber Readiness Report is based on a survey of 5005 executives, IT managers and professionals in Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, the UK, Ireland and the US.

According to Hiscox, cyber criminals were now increasingly attacking small and medium-sized businesses. In all eight countries, 36% of affected companies had less than ten employees - an increase by half compared to 2021.

Of the 963 German companies that responded, more than half reported cyberattacks in the last year. According to the study, 58% of German companies were attacked by hackers on one or more occasions, Hiscox's Munich-based German subsidiary announced on Tuesday.

That was 12 percentage points more than a year earlier. Only Ireland reported more hacker attacks than German companies experienced.

Hiscox estimated the average financial loss of a successful cyberattack at $16,000 dollars, somewhat less than in previous years.

In Germany, the most common successful cyberattack is via a compromised business email. Also known as "fake president fraud," hackers use stolen email addresses to impersonate executives and direct payments to their own accounts. In Germany, 43% of companies suffered financial damage because payments were diverted to hacker accounts.

The analysis was commissioned by the insurer and carried out by experts from the US consulting firm Forrester Consulting.