More than one in 10 German companies were the victim of a cyberattack last year, according to a new study, with the war in Ukraine prompting a steep increase in hacking in Europe’s largest economy.

In a survey conducted by the Association of Technical Inspection Agencies (TUV) and Germany’s Federal Office for Information Security (BSI), 11% of German businesses reported an IT security breach in 2022. That translates to about 50,000 attacks.

Among German businesses polled, 58% said they registered increased cybersecurity risk after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The danger was particularly acute for larger businesses, the public sector and health-care firms.

In order to counteract the increased risk from hackers, 55% of affected businesses have beefed up cybersecurity, the survey showed.

Beyond the war in Ukraine, developments in generative AI are also causing heightened cybersecurity risk, said TUV President Johannes Bussmann. “The mistakes and clumsy formulations that make a phishing email easily recognizable will soon no longer be there,” he said.