Cyber security is becoming increasingly important in the Industry 4.0 era. This is why the first half of the year saw the technology association VDE calling for more training and awareness-raising among employees. Another resource is insurance against damage resulting from cyber attacks: according to a recent Bitkom study , 14 % of industrial enterprises have now taken out insurance against digital industrial espionage, sabotage or data theft – 3 % more than two years ago. A further 13 % have plans to insure themselves, and 30 % are looking into the matter.

However, there is a stark disparity between different sizes of company. 32 % of firms with more than 500 employees have cyber insurance; for medium-sized enterprises this is still 23 %, but for small businesses only 10 %. However, only 28 % of insured companies who had been involved in a claim said that the decision was worthwhile for them, despite policies generally covering a wide range of possible incidents – they not only bear the costs of repairs to IT systems and of data recovery, but also of losses caused by interrupted production, technical failure or employee error.