Half of German companies hit by sabotage, spying in last two years

Some 53% of companies in Germany have been victims of industrial espionage, sabotage or data theft in the last two years.

BERLIN: More than half the companies in Germany have been hit by spying, sabotage or data theft in the last two years, the German IT industry association Bitkom said on Friday, and estimated the attacks caused around €55bil (RM274.8bil) worth of damage a year. 

Several high-profile attacks have occurred recently, such as the WannaCry ransomware attacks in May and a virus dubbed "NotPetya" that halted production at some companies for more than a week. Others lost millions of euros to organised crime in a scam called "CEO Fraud".