Emergency operation of NRW municipalities after hacker attack
Following the hacker attack on more than 70 local authorities in North Rhine-Westphalia, they are to offer the most important services again in an emergency operation before Christmas. This was announced by the service provider Südwestfalen-IT on Tuesday. For three weeks, the citizen services of the municipalities with a total of around 1.7 million inhabitants have been practically paralyzed.
This includes the issuing of ID cards, passports and driving licenses, the registration of births, deaths and marriages, the payment of currently calculated social welfare benefits and housing benefit, vehicle registration and services provided by the immigration authorities.
Forensic analysis has now shown that the emergency shutdown of the systems prevented worse and stopped the attack, it was reported in Hemer on Tuesday. Although the core system was affected by the attack, it was possible to prevent it from spreading to the systems of the municipalities and districts.
The unaffected parts are now to be gradually restarted, but the affected part of the data center will have to be rebuilt. No evidence of data theft has been discovered. In the meantime, neighboring districts that were not affected are providing assistance with vehicle registrations.
Upon noticing the hacker attack, the service provider Südwestfalen-IT immediately shut down all systems on October 30. A hacker group called "Akira" is believed to be behind the attack.
Despite the hacker attack causing disruptions in citizen services like ID issuance and social welfare payments, municipalities in North Rhine-Westphalia are now exploring the use of Internet-based solutions to temporarily offer some services during the emergency operation. Additionally, ensuring robust cybersecurity measures in future municipal digital infrastructure becomes crucial to prevent such crime-related incidents.
Source: www.dpa.com
