Cyberattacks are the greatest threat to businesses worldwide, corporate insurer AGCS has warned.

In its risk barometer published on Tuesday, AGCS or Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty cited criminal hackers as the top threat to global businesses.

Business interruptions, natural disasters and pandemics follow in places two to four, AGCS said.

The company surveyed a total of 2,650 professionals in 89 countries last autumn.

This included over 1,200 executives from large companies with annual sales worth more than 500 million dollars. Allianz's own experts also took part in the survey.

Even very good IT security precautions do not protect one hundred per cent against hacker attacks, the company learned.

"Companies invest a lot of money in the further development of IT security, but we are still finding that attackers can get through and sometimes cause enormous damage to companies," AGCS manager Jens Krickhahn said.

The Allianz survey is consistent with other analyses of cyber crime.

The US company Cybersecurity Ventures, which is frequently cited in the IT industry, estimates that the global damage caused by cybercrime reached six trillion dollars last year.

By 2025, this could increase to 10.5 trillion dollars. That sum includes data theft and destruction, financial crime, lost productivity, intellectual property theft and other crimes, as well as the cost of repairing the damage.

dpa