Economic protection situation report

The “Situation Report Economic Security NRW 2019” provided a representative and comprehensive overview of the status quo of corporate security for SMEs in North Rhine-Westphalia. In 2021, the status quo of business security for SMEs was surveyed again by FHM in order to draw comparisons and analyze developments. Building on the last situation report, company information was collected and evaluated in the dimensions of “Organizational protection measures”, “Personal protection measures”, “Cyber attack protection” and “Physical building protection”. Once again, companies with 0 to <500 employees were surveyed. The business protection situation report covered the sectors of finance/insurance, trade, energy/water/wastewater/disposal, catering/hospitality, health/social affairs, industry, trade and industry-related services. “Companies should be put in a position to recognize potential risks at an early stage, avert them in good time and take the necessary protective measures. The aim is to provide the best possible protection against the loss of valuable and often vital company and business secrets,” said Interior Minister Herbert Reul, confirming the necessity of the situation report.

Small and medium-sized companies in NRW invest too little in security: this is one of the findings of the “Wirtschaftsschutz NRW 2019 Situation Report”, which was compiled by the Fachhochschule des Mittelstands (FHM) on the initiative of the NRW Security Partnership and under the leadership of the NRW Office for the Protection of the Constitution. At the 15th Security Day of the Alliance for Security in the Economy West e.V. (ASW West) in September 2019, the report was presented to the public by NRW Minister of the Interior Herbert Reul and Burkhard Freier, Head of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution NRW.

The “Situation Report Economic Security NRW 2019” provides a representative and comprehensive overview of the status quo of corporate security for SMEs in North Rhine-Westphalia. “Companies should be put in a position to recognize potential dangers at an early stage, avert them in good time and take the necessary protective measures. The aim is to provide the best possible protection against the loss of valuable, usually existential, company and business secrets,” said Interior Minister Reul, confirming the necessity of the situation report.

Of the approx. 717,000 SMEs in North Rhine-Westphalia, 20,000 companies were contacted in an online-based empirical survey. The response rate ensured representative results. One of the findings was that the level of protection increases with the size of the company. Specifically, this means that the smaller a company is, the greater the risk of successful espionage or sabotage. On a scale of 0 to 10, the overall index of the level of protection is 4.81. This corresponds to an “intermediate” level of protection and the statement “partially” protected. “Companies are aware of the measures for corporate security, but the self-perception often does not reflect the actual status”, summarizes Prof. Dr. Ellena Werning, scientific director of the project, the study. According to Werning, the majority of companies overestimate themselves, particularly in the areas of “organizational protective measures”, “physical building protection” and “personal data”: “The results of our situation report have shown that around 25 percent of the companies surveyed have fallen victim to attacks. So there is still a lot to do here and room for improvement.”

This is why the “Situation Report Economic Protection NRW 2019” will not remain a one-off event. It will be updated and further developed every two years.