- 54 per cent of companies increased spending on IT security last year
- The number of serious security incidents fell slightly last year, from 20 per cent to 17 per cent
Companies in Germany are responding to the tense IT security situation and investing more in cyber security. Fifty-four per cent of companies increased spending on IT security last year. As a result, the number of serious security incidents decreased slightly last year, from 20 per cent to 17 per cent. This is one of the findings of the IT Security Survey 2022 published by eco – Association of the Internet Industry. Every year since 2010, the eco Association has investigated the state of IT security in Germany and recently again surveyed 145 experts from the IT security industry.
Even though efforts to improve IT security are on the rise, the situation remains tense. The threat situation in Germany continues to grow, say 93.8 per cent of IT security experts. They also identify the Covid-19 pandemic as an important reason for this. According to 80 per cent of IT security experts, this has exacerbated the security situation. Successful attacks in the home office occurred at around 16 per cent of the companies.
Employee awareness in the home office is the most critical security issue
“In light of a growing threat landscape and vulnerabilities due to more employees working from home, many companies are not protecting themselves adequately against cyberattacks,” says Oliver Dehning, Head of the Security Competence Group at eco – Association of the Internet Industry. “Many small and medium-sized enterprises, in particular, lack a security concept for remote workstations. This includes, for example, employee awareness measures that increase overall cyber resilience.” The critical security issue now is employee awareness, the study notes. In second and third place in the ranking of the most important security topics are emergency planning and spam protection.
In the last 12 months, 32 per cent of companies have experienced damage from IT security incidents. When it comes to an IT security incident, as in previous years, the company is usually the victim of a ransomware attack (21 per cent). Extortion Trojans are apparently still very popular among cybercriminals as a lucrative source of income. However, other forms of cybercrime have caught up. In second place is website hacking with 18 per cent. In particular, claims involving data theft have increased sharply and are now on a par with the previous year at 18 per cent. Only 9 per cent of all victims of cybercrime had insurance to cover the damage.
