Municipalities - Progress after hacker attack on IT service provider
A good two months after a hacker attack on the service provider Südwestfalen-IT (SIT), which affected more than 70 local authorities in North Rhine-Westphalia, further progress has been made. "We have started the rollout of prioritized procedures in the first municipalities," said a spokesperson for SIT on Thursday in response to a dpa query. These prioritized procedures include the issuing of ID cards and passports as well as re-registrations. However, it is still a long way from these services working again everywhere. The situation varies - also in view of the many transitional solutions and parallel structures provided at great expense by local authorities. WDR had also reported on progress.
The SIT spokesperson emphasized that it was only possible to find out precisely which services the affected cities, districts and municipalities could offer their citizens again locally. Upon noticing the hacker attack, the service provider immediately shut down all systems on October 30. A hacker group called "Akira" is believed to be behind the attack. As a result, the citizen services of the municipalities with a total of around 1.7 million inhabitants were severely restricted or initially almost completely paralyzed - with some major differences in the type and extent of the impact.
According to the company spokesperson, it is a good sign that there have been no indications of data theft so far. Neither the forensic analysis nor the observations of the darknet had produced any indications of this. The experts could not yet say how long it would take to eliminate all the consequences of the attack.
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- Despite the significant progress, some municipalities in North Rhine-Westphalia continue to face challenges in offering fully functional citizen services after the hacker attack on Südwestfalen-IT.
- The spokesperson from Südwestfalen-IT stated that they are working closely with the affected municipalities in South Westphalia and North Rhine-Westphalia to determine which services can be restored locally following the cyber attack.
- The WDR news channel reported on the progress being made in restoring services to the affected municipalities, highlighting the joint efforts of the service provider and the local authorities.
- In light of the hacker attack, there have been no signs of data theft so far, according to the forensic analysis and observations on the darknet, making it crucial for authorities to continue their investigation and secure the system.
- Criminality on the internet remains a significant concern, with hacker groups like "Akira" targeting IT service providers and municipalities in Germany, emphasizing the need for increased cybersecurity measures.
Source: www.stern.de
