Computer hackers have increasingly targeted the German economy.

Since the beginning of the Corona crisis, not only has the number of attacks by cyber criminals on local companies, research institutes, associations and institutions increased significantly.

The total amount of damage also rose by leaps and bounds.

At 223 billion euros per year, it is currently more than twice as high as in 2018 and 2019.

Stephan Finsterbusch

Editor in business.

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Almost 90 percent of the one thousand companies and organizations questioned in a representative survey by the Berlin digital association Bitkom stated that they had been affected by attacks from the Internet, and as badly as never before. In the two years before the Corona crisis, “only” 75 percent of companies saw themselves in the crosshairs of cyber criminals. At that time, the damage was estimated at around 100 billion euros.

With the outbreak of the pandemic, new records were set month after month.

No wonder: With Corona, hundreds of thousands of large and small companies began to let the majority of their employees work from home.

New technology was needed for home work: laptops, software, networks.

Dealing with it, however, was seldom tried and hardly practiced.

Many new systems have also been riddled with security holes.

Stolen, hijacked and encrypted

This drove hackers to step up their activities. Before the crisis, data espionage was on the agenda, but with the outbreak of Corona, blackmail programs became the focus. This so-called ransomware is deliberately placed on company computers via infected e-mails, updates or websites, hijacks important data there and encrypts it so that companies lose control of their IT systems and can no longer operate them.

On payment of a ransom, companies receive a digital key with which they can get their data back.

An average of between 70,000 and 80,000 euros must be paid for such a key.

"The force with which ransomware attacks are shaking our economy is worrying and affects companies of all industries and sizes," said Bitkom President Achim Berg, commenting on the current development.

Everything that can be found in the storage systems of computers and network computers is stolen, hijacked and encrypted: customer and operating data, production and accounting software, development plans, research work and patent developments.

"The theft of intellectual property can have serious consequences for the innovation-driven German economy," continues Berg.

"Anyone who doesn't do that is acting negligently"

Sinan Selen, Vice President of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, who presented the results together with Berg, explained: “The current Bitkom study makes it clear how important a resilient economy is for Germany as a business location.

The corona pandemic has dramatically increased the need.

We can only counter the threats of sabotage and espionage effectively through intensive cooperation between business and authorities. "

On the way to their goals, the hackers primarily use the “human factor” as the weakest link in the security chain in order to penetrate the foreign systems. Such attempts have recently been made in 41 percent of the companies surveyed. 27 percent of those surveyed stated that they had been contacted by phone, among other things, and 24 percent received infected e-mails. This is mainly due to the changed working conditions in the wake of the corona pandemic.

59 percent of the companies where home office is possible said that there had been IT security incidents since the beginning of the pandemic that could be attributed to employees working from home. In half of the cases, the hackers succeeded. Berg said: Simply sending employees home to work is not enough. Your devices need to be secured, the channels protected and the workforce made aware of dangers. "Anyone who doesn't do that is acting negligently."