The proportion of Dutch businesses affected by cyber attacks has fallen significantly over the past decade, new data from Statistics Netherlands (CBS) has revealed.
According to Statistics Netherlands’ 2025 Cybersecurity Monitor, in 2024, 4% of Dutch businesses faced at least one cyber incident, down from 11% in 2016.
The decline was recorded across both smaller and larger businesses, the data showed. Compared with 2023, incidents also decreased for most firms, although the rate remained unchanged among enterprises with 250 employees or more.
The statistics body also noted that fewer companies are incurring financial losses from cyber incidents. In 2016, some 6% per cent of businesses reported costs arising from external cyber attacks, compared with just 1% in 2024.
Sector impact
In terms of the sectors most likely to be affected by cyber attacks, meanwhile, firms operating in the information and communication sector were the most likely to experience cyber incidents, with 7% affected in 2024. Financial services followed at 6%.
The accommodation and food services sector and the health and social care sector recorded the lowest incidence rates, at 2% each.
‘For the accommodation and food services sector, this is unsurprising, as businesses in this sector are less likely to rely on IT systems than those in other sectors,’ CBS said.
‘This also reduces the chance of downtime due to hardware or software failures. Businesses in the health and social care sector have strict information security policies and are therefore generally better protected against external attacks.’
Cybersecurity measures
Among enterprises with 250 or more employees, 86% said that they had implemented at least ten of the recommended twelve cybersecurity measures surveyed. By comparison, only 13% of firms employing between two and ten people had implemented the same number of precautions, CBS noted.
The gap was particularly pronounced for more advanced security measures such as data encryption. CBS said 91% of large enterprises used data encryption, compared with 33% of the smallest businesses. Read more here.
