Attack in South Westphalia: no ransom for hackers
Following a serious hacker attack on the service provider Südwestfalen-IT, the police, companies and affected local authorities are refusing to negotiate or even pay a ransom to the perpetrators. This is according to dpa information from a confidential report from the Ministry of the Interior to the state parliament. The "Siegener Zeitung" had previously reported.
According to the report, a hacker group calling itself "Akira" is behind the attack. According to the IT security company Logpoint, the group has only been active since March and has since become one of the most active criminal organizations in the field of Internet blackmail.
According to the report to the state parliament, the hackers had encrypted the servers of Südwestfalen-IT and left a message that contact should be made on the darknet. A specific ransom amount has not yet been named.
According to the Ministry of the Interior, 74 municipalities were affected by the forced shutdown of the service provider's systems. The districts of Siegen-Wittgenstein and Olpe have been particularly badly affected.
According to the confidential report, no data from Südwestfalen-IT has yet appeared on the "Akira" pages on the Darknet. It is still unclear whether any data has been tapped. It remains to be seen when the systems will be up and running again.
The German government is closely monitoring the situation, as refusing to pay ransoms in such cybercrime cases can set a significant precedent on the Internet. Despite the attack, no leaked data linked to the affected municipalities has been discovered on the darknet.
Source: www.dpa.com
