BERLIN

Russia and China were behind the majority of the cyberattacks that targeted German businesses last year, Bitkom, a digital advocacy group, said on Friday.

“There are other countries too, but Russia and China are the leading countries behind these cyberattacks,” Bitkom’s President Ralf Wintergerst told a news conference in Berlin.

“At the same time, organized criminal groups engaging in cybercrime have significantly increased, these are the perceptions and findings of the German companies,” he said.

According to a representative survey conducted by Bitkom, 72% of German businesses were targeted last year for blackmail, industrial espionage, sabotage, or data theft.

Some 46% of the companies were able to trace cyberattacks back to Russia, and 42% were attacked from China, according to the study.

“The German economy is a highly attractive target for criminals and hostile states. The boundaries between organized crime and state-controlled actors are blurred here,” Wintergerst said.

Speaking at the same news conference, Sinan Selen, deputy director of the domestic intelligence agency BfV, said authorities are using various digital forensic methods, and analyzing electronic evidence to determine the origins of cyberattacks.

“What we are recently observing is that state-controlled cyberattack campaigns are becoming more professional, aggressive, and agile,” he said.

He said companies should not feel powerless in the face of such cyberattacks and seek support from federal authorities, such as the National Cyber Defence Centre.

The estimated cost of cyberattacks on German businesses was €206 billion ($224 billion) last year, according to Bitkom. About 52% of German business owners said the cyberattacks have become so serious in recent years that they started to fear for their companies’ future.