cybercrime
3,000 speed offenders get away with no punishment after a hacker attack
After a hacker attack, no vehicle owners could be identified at times – the speed offenders did not have to pay. Photo: Oliver Berg/dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
The hacker attack on a municipal IT service provider in the district of Ludwigslust-Parchim was lucky for a whole series of drivers who were flashed. They didn’t have to pay a fine. Why?
Around 3,000 speed offenders in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania got away with no punishment because of a major hacker attack last year in the Ludwigslust-Parchim district.
A spokesman for the district confirmed that the procedures with drivers who were flashed had expired because the district could not process the data and deadlines were exceeded. The “Schweriner Volkszeitung” had previously reported.
The period from mid-October – the time of the hacker attack on the municipal IT service provider – until the end of 2021 was affected. During this time, no owner queries could be made and no contact could be made with the Federal Motor Transport Authority. During the cyber attack, the servers of the Schwerin IT and Servicegesellschaft (SIS) and the Mecklenburg Municipal Service (KSM) were partially encrypted by malware. After the hacker attack, most of the systems in the district were shut down and only gradually started up again. It is still unclear who is responsible for the attack.