Industrial espionage, sabotage, data theft. The costs for the German economy is unbearable and “digital domination” looks like a dream. In the past, the German economy was not affected by industrial espionage, sabotage or data theft, often with the participation of secret services. 50% of the attacks use artificial intelligence. These are the key conclusions of representative research conducted by the German Association of Bitkom Digital Technology companies, with the participation of more than 1,000 companies of various sectors, with at least ten employees and a turnover of at least one million euros.

87% of executives involved in the survey are convinced that their company suffered at least one attack in the last twelve months. A 10% believe that there was a probably target for theft, sabotage or espionage at the same time. The total financial damage caused by digital and analog attacks is placed by the affected at around 289 billion euros.

Often the perpetrators are foreign secret services

More than one in four affected companies (28%) attribute 2025 the illegal acts to some secret intelligence service. In the same survey a year earlier, one in five companies (20%) suspected this while in 2023 the rate was only 7%. Wounds are named as a geographical starting point of (cyber) attacks, China and Russia 46%, 31% in Eastern Europe, 21% in Germany, 22% in other countries outside the EU and 24% in the US.

Bitkom president Ralph Vidergerst considers the dependence of German companies and IT products on non -EU services to be extremely problematic. A recent survey conducted by the German Digital Technology Association has shown that due to geopolitical conditions, German companies are particularly concerned about the US. When asked in which area such acts were carried out, 46% of companies named China and Russia. 31% identified the perpetrators in Eastern Europe, 21% in Germany, 22% in other countries outside the EU and 24% in the US.

“Not even a decade we will be self -sufficient”

According to the president of Bitkom, the issue of “digital sovereignty” is increasingly important for German digital companies, that is, whether companies are still able to choose independently “with which partners are they working”. Due to the many, different and scattered investments in basic digital technologies in Germany, Europe and other parts of the world in recent decades, “we will be neither self -sufficient nor largely dominant in the next decade,” says Ralph Vidergerst.

The Bitkom president appeals to companies and the German authorities to “use German products even if they are not at the level of competition because otherwise they will never have the opportunity to achieve their goal”. The appeal applies to both private businesses and the German State.

Curated by: Stefanos Georgakopoulos