On Wednesday, August 28, the results of a special survey were published, according to which last year in Germany, local companies faced financial losses of 267 billion euros ($298 billion) as a result of crimes committed in virtual space and other acts of sabotage.

The mentioned survey was conducted by the industry association Bitkom. It is worth noting that the amount of financial damage recorded last year is 29% more than the amount of corresponding losses that were fixed in 2022.

About 1,000 companies from all sectors participated in the survey conducted by Bitkom. It is worth noting that 90% of these firms said they expected the number of cyber attacks to increase over the next 12 months. The other 10% of companies predict that the corresponding activity in the virtual space will remain at the same level. It is noteworthy that firms do not expect the situation to improve, and a positive scenario in this case is to maintain the current state of affairs without any deterioration.

During the mentioned survey, about 70% of companies that have faced the sensitive consequences of attacks in the digital environment said that these actions are related to organized crime. Also, 81% of the firms surveyed reported data theft. In this case, it means confidential customer information, access data and passwords, and intellectual property such as patents.

Moreover, about 45% of the company said that at least one attack committed in the virtual space, in their opinion, was committed by hackers from China.

Bitkom President Ralf Wintergerst stated that the situation with the threat to the German economic system coming from the digital environment is on a deterioration trajectory. He also noted that companies should strengthen measures to protect themselves from attacks by cybercriminals.

It is worth noting that German businesses are aware of the scale of threats circulating in the digital environment and the damage that hackers can cause. Bitkom reports that in Germany, companies currently allocate an average of 17% of their IT budget to cybersecurity. It is worth noting that last year the corresponding figure was fixed at 14%. At the same time, only 37% of local firms have an emergency security incident response plan in their supply chain. Other companies do not have an algorithm for dealing with such situations.

It is worth noting that the situation in the cybersecurity area has deteriorated against the background of fraudsters gaining access to artificial intelligence technologies. AI has made the activities of cybercriminals more sophisticated. In the context of the corresponding challenge to the security area in the virtual space, personal awareness of users is important as a tool for countering illegal activity. For example, a query in an Internet search system, such as how to know if my camera is hacked, will allow anyone to get information about signs of unauthorized access to the device. It is worth noting that digital literacy is an effective tool for countering the activity of cybercriminals. At the same time, corresponding information should be periodically updated and supplemented, since fraudsters operating in virtual space use advanced technologies that are on a dynamic development trajectory.