A fifth of Dutch companies affected by cyber attacks

A fifth of Dutch companies with at least 10 employees, dealt with the consequences of a cyber attack last year, Statistics Netherlands revealed in a study on IT incidents on Monday. Companies in the financial- and energy sectors are most vulnerable to cyber attacks, according to the stats office.

In half of the cases, the affected companies had to incur costs to remedy damage caused by an external attack. The majority of damages involved the loss or destruction of data. Personal data being leaked by cyber criminals was less common, and for the most part did not result in any material damage. 

Statistics Netherlands also looked at IT problems in general terms. About half of Dutch companies incurred extra costs to deal with IT problems last year. These mostly involved hard- or software malfunctions. The hospitality industry had the least IT issues, with 33 percent of companies having problems. The health and welfare sector faced the most, 57 percent of companies.

According to the stats office, large companies have more IT problems than smaller ones. Three quarters of companies with more than 500 employees had to call in technicians to deal with IT problems last year, compared to 43 percent of companies between 10 and 20 employees.