Foreign espionage attacks against German companies surge to 37%, Bitkom report reveals

Foreign intelligence services have significantly escalated their operations against German companies, according to a survey released Wednesday (Aug 26) by the Bitkom digital business federation, which highlighted growing cyber and espionage threats tied to China, Russia, and Iran. While organised crime remains the primary source of overall data theft, industrial espionage, and sabotage, 37 per cent of targeted companies traced at least one attack over the past 12 months to foreign intelligence agencies. Bitkom President Ralf Wintergerst described the shift at a press conference as a "dramatic rise," up from 28 per cent the prior year and just seven percent in 2023.

The study based on a survey of 1,003 German enterprises with 10 or more employees noted that 76 per cent of total financial damage stemmed from cyberattacks, though traditional physical incidents like hardware theft were also recorded. Among victimised firms, 52 per cent traced incidents to China, while 49 per cent identified Russian origins. Attacks linked to Iran rose to nine per cent, more than doubling from four per cent last year.

Attending the presentation, Sinan Selen, head of Germany's domestic intelligence agency (BfV), stated that the findings fit "seamlessly with the high threat level" currently facing the nation.

"Both Russia's ongoing war of aggression and the advancing, covert use of AI in cyberattacks pose major challenges for companies," Selen remarked, adding that “the security and defence industry is a particularly attractive target area for foreign services,” news agency AFP quoted.

Wintergerst observed that state actors are refining their tactics while "less professional actors are getting new opportunities thanks to artificial intelligence." He also cautioned that the "number of undetected incidents is getting bigger."

Overall, 96 per cent of surveyed firms suspected they were targeted, but only 67 per cent could confirm it with certainty. Due to this hidden margin of error, Bitkom estimated total annual damages across the German economy to fall within a wide range of $246 billion to $316 billion.