German businesses face more foreign spy attacks, survey says

Foreign intelligence agencies have increased attacks on German businesses, with companies identifying threats linked to China, Russia and Iran, according to a survey published Wednesday by the Bitkom federation of digital businesses.

Bitkom said organised criminals remained the biggest single group responsible for data theft, industrial espionage or sabotage. But 37 percent of companies that registered an attack in the past 12 months said at least one incident was traced to a foreign intelligence agency, up from 28 percent the previous year and seven percent in 2023.

The attacks cited by the survey included physical incidents such as the theft of IT or communications equipment, but Bitkom said 76 percent of all damage was caused by cyberattacks.

Among companies that suffered an attack of any kind, 52 percent said they were able to trace at least one incident to China and 49 percent to Russia. Iran was identified as the source of at least one attack by nine percent of respondents, up from four percent last year.

Sinan Selen, head of Germany's BfV domestic intelligence agency, said the findings fit the high threat level facing Germany. “Both Russia's ongoing war of aggression and the advancing, covert use of AI in cyberattacks pose major challenges for companies,” he said. He added that the security and defence industry was a particularly attractive target for foreign services.

The survey covered 1,003 businesses in Germany with at least 10 employees. Bitkom said the cost of such attacks was difficult to estimate because many incidents may go undetected, but put possible losses between 211 billion and 270.8 billion euros, or $246 billion to $316 billion.