BERLIN, Aug 28 (Reuters) – Cybercrime and other acts of sabotage cost German companies around 267 billion euros ($298 billion) last year, 29 percent more than the year before, according to a survey published on Wednesday.

The industry association Bitkom surveyed around 1,000 companies from all sectors and found that 90 percent expect more cyber attacks in the next twelve months, while the remaining 10 percent expect the intensity of attacks to remain the same.

About 70 percent of the affected companies attributed the attacks to organized crime, according to the survey. In addition, 81 percent of the companies reported data theft, including customer data, login details and passwords, as well as intellectual property such as patents.

Around 45 percent of companies said they attributed at least one attack to China. Last year, this figure was only 42 percent. In second place, at 39 percent, were attacks blamed on Russia.

“The threat situation for the German economy is worsening,” Bitkom President Ralf Wintergerst said in a statement, adding that companies must strengthen their protective measures.

The increase in attacks prompted companies to allocate 17 percent of their IT budget to digital security (compared to 14 percent last year), but only 37 percent of respondents said they had a contingency plan in place to respond to security incidents in their supply chain, the survey found.

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