Hacker attacks in Germany: More attacks on official websites

Ministries, police or federal platforms: hackers have paralyzed official websites in other federal states. According to the Verden public prosecutor’s office, there are indications of a pro-Russian background in Lower Saxony. The authorities are investigating.

Hackers have expanded the cyber attacks with effects on the websites of public authorities: other federal states are now affected. The Schleswig-Holstein state portal was temporarily unavailable on Wednesday. In Brandenburg, the police reported a disruption to the website. In Saarland, the state government could not be reached or was delayed in some cases.

In Thuringia, the Interior Ministry and the police were attacked by hackers from Germany and abroad from Wednesday morning. Access to the websites of the Berlin authorities also took longer.

Attacks on government and police websites

Hacker attacks on websites of ministries or the police in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Lower Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt were already known on Tuesday.

Saxony-Anhalt’s Digital Minister Lydia Hüskens said: “We assume that the attacks in the various federal states were coordinated.” The State Criminal Police Office in Saxony-Anhalt had already started investigating on Tuesday. “There was no damage, except that the websites were temporarily unavailable,” says Hüskens. According to their information, the website of the superordinate state portal sachsen-anhalt.de had to be shut down so that the state administration could have continued to work with its IT system. The hackers paralyzed the pages with a so-called DDoS attack. Servers are deliberately overloaded with mass requests.

Lower Saxony: suspected pro-Russian background

There was also talk of encumbrance attacks in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Lower Saxony.

In Lower Saxony, investigations into computer sabotage against unknown persons have now been initiated. A spokesman for the Ministry of Justice explained that there had been an increase in access from foreign addresses. It is being investigated in all directions, but there are indications of a pro-Russian background, said a spokesman for the Verden public prosecutor. According to the Ministry of the Interior, many police websites in the state were unavailable on Tuesday. The cyber attack continues, but the websites can now be accessed again.

Berlin: No files stolen

Never before has there been such a major attack on the websites of the Berlin state administration, said State Secretary for Digital Affairs in the Senate Department for the Interior, Ralf Kleindiek rbb. However, no data was leaked or stolen.

A police spokeswoman in Brandenburg said: “One or the other citizen will have circumstances.” In Brandenburg, the attack paralyzed online services. The State Criminal Police Office is investigating on suspicion of computer sabotage.

Also affected platform of the Ministry of Development

On Tuesday, hackers again targeted a German Development Ministry platform for reconstruction in Ukraine. The security authorities of the federal government and the affected countries are involved and exchanged information, a spokeswoman for the Federal Ministry of the Interior told the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung”. Nothing can be said about possible connections between the attacks.