Bayer confirms cyber attack but says no data stolen

German chemicals giant Bayer confirmed Thursday reports it had suffered a hacking attack, but insisted that so far no data appeared to have been stolen.

The Leverkusen-based group "detected indications of (hacker group) Winnti infections at the beginning of 2018," a spokesman told AFP, confirming reports by German public broadcasters BR and NDR.

"There is no evidence of data outflow," he added.

Hackers from the so-called Winnti group, believed to be linked to the Chinese state, were first spotted using malicious software to spy on Bayer's activities in early 2018 and were present in company networks until late last month, the media reports said.

Bayer said that "in close collaboration with" private cyber security organisation DCSO and police in North Rhine-Westphalia state it had "identified, analysed and cleaned up the affected systems."