Russia, China, Iran drive cyberattacks on German businesses: Report

German companies faced a surge in cyberattacks over the past year, with Russia, China, and Iran emerging as the primary sources, digital industry association Bitkom said Wednesday.

The group’s annual report, based on company surveys, estimated that cyberattacks caused €211 billion ($246 billion) in economic damage. Bitkom President Ralf Wintergerst told a news conference in Berlin that 52% of firms traced attacks to China and 49% to Russia.

“What is striking is that 9% of the companies surveyed now report attacks originating from Iran,” Wintergerst said. “This marks the first time Iran has emerged as a major actor in economic crime against German companies.”

A key finding, he said, was that a growing number of businesses remained unaware they were under attack. Espionage efforts in particular have become more sophisticated and harder to detect.

Speaking at the same event, Sinan Selen, head of Germany’s domestic intelligence agency, the BfV, said investigations showed that foreign state actors were responsible for an increasing share of cyber espionage and sabotage targeting German companies.

“Germany faces a high level of threat in cyberspace. The rise in activity by state actors is a matter of extreme concern to us,” Selen said.

He noted that 37% of companies affected by data theft, industrial espionage, or sabotage attributed at least one attack to a foreign intelligence service in the past 12 months, up from 28% a year earlier.

“37 percent. That is a figure that really needs to sink in,” he said. “Going from 28 to 37 represents an increase of nearly 10 percentage points. These are not isolated, one-off attacks, but rather campaigns undertaken by state actors.”

Selen said foreign intelligence services had stepped up hybrid operations and were also using criminal organizations or low-level agents.

Russia’s war against Ukraine and Moscow’s covert use of artificial intelligence in cyberattacks pose particular challenges, especially for Germany’s defense industry, he warned.

“As a counter-intelligence agency, we focus on the detection, disruption, and prevention of attacks on our economy,” Selen said, adding that the agency was expanding awareness efforts and strengthening cooperation with industry to address vulnerabilities, prevent data theft, and counter industrial espionage and sabotage attempts.