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Which areas of the company are targeted by the attacks? IT systems and the communication structure in companies are most frequently affected. According to Bitkom, they are the "gateway for acts of espionage and sabotage". This is followed by warehousing/logistics, purchasing, production and management. Surprisingly, research and development is only a very minor focus for cyber criminals at 9%. The reason for this is that the majority of respondents are small companies. They do not have their own R&D department. In contrast, almost a third of large companies with 500 or more employees state that their R&D department has been hacked or spied on.