Twelve percent of Flemish companies were affected by a cyber attack in 2021

In 2021, 11.8 percent of Flemish companies had to deal with a cyber attack. The Flemish Government’s Department of Economy, Science & Innovation has come to this conclusion on the basis of an initial baseline measurement.

The Flemish Minister of Economy and Innovation, Hilde Crevits, had this baseline measurement performed to see how mature the cybersecurity of Flemish companies is. According to the department, large companies are most often confronted with cyber attacks, but the consequences of such an attack are greater on smaller companies, because they are often less well protected.

In 2021, 40 percent of all small and medium-sized companies had to deal with unusable ICT systems due to, for example, a hack or malicious software. One-fifth of these SMEs lost business data and more than ten percent of SMEs experienced data theft.

The minister says that especially small companies are insufficiently armed against these kinds of attacks. “In order for our companies to protect themselves better and more against cybercrime, we have decided to adjust some subsidy conditions. I call on everyone to make good use of this,” says the minister. This is a subsidy for SMEs that are highly dependent on IT systems. These companies then receive advice and guidance from cybersecurity service providers.

The research shows that a majority of 94.2 percent of Flemish companies take various measures for protection, but this is limited to a few basic measures. According to the government, these are insufficient, given ‘the increased number of cyber risks’.