Eighty percent of German businesses reported being hit by data or IT theft, industrial espionage or sabotage in the last 12 months, with 45% of companies tracing cyberattacks or other acts of industrial spying to China, a survey showed on Wednesday.

The survey by Bitkom, a trade association for Germany's IT sector, also saw Russia being blamed for 39% of attacks.

That figure, however, is down from a previous 46%, while the statistic for China is three percentage points more than in the last survey in 2023.

The survey estimated that the German economy had suffered damage of up to €267 billion ($297 billion) in the last 12 months from acts of industrial espionage, including cybercrime. That figure is up 29% from the year before.

What did Bitkom say?

Bitkom President Ralf Wintergerst said the figures showed "how conflict-ridden and tense today's world is."

Wintergerst said that German and Chinese companies are heavily intertwined in a globalized economy and that this situation was likely to remain in place over the coming years.

"What has been built up over several decades in terms of supply chains, joint ventures and other structures cannot be reversed within a few years. It's simply impossible," he said.

Wintergerst said companies had to set aside more money to protect against cybercrime and industrial espionage amid a worsening threat situation for the German economy.

Companies polled said they had raised the average amount allocated to digital security in their IT budgets to 17%, compared with 14% last year, but just over a third said they had emergency plans in place in case of security incidents in their supply chain.

Economic love-hate with China

China remains a vital economic partner for Germany but is also recognized as a rival.

Among other things, there was considerable consternation in industrial circles in recent months after it was revealed that Chinese hackers spied on German auto giant Volkswagen for years.

Germany and other Western countries are also increasingly chary of falling into the same trap of overreliance on any one country for essential products that they did with Russia in the energy market.

Despite this, Germany's investments in China have continued to increase despite government warnings to "de-risk" the relationship with the Asian industrial giant.

tj/sms (Reuters, dpa)

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