Internet
IT companies after cyber attack in NRW: citizen data safe
The attackers are said to have penetrated the SIT network, but the quick emergency shutdown prevented the “ransomware attack” from spreading to other systems. (Symbolic image) photo
© Sina Schuldt/dpa
After a cyber attack on South Westphalia IT with over 70 cities and districts affected, experts see no evidence of data theft.
In the cyber attack on the service provider Südwestfalen-IT with more than 70 affected municipalities NRW three months ago, hackers did not steal any data from citizens. An SIT company spokesman said this after external cyber security experts presented their final report on the attack by a hacker group the evening before. The spokesman emphasized that personal data of residents of the affected cities, districts and municipalities were not leaked.
The criminals were able to penetrate the SIT network, but the quick emergency shutdown on the night of October 30th prevented the so-called ransomware attack from spreading to other systems. There was therefore no attack on municipal systems, explained SIT spokesman Marcus Ewald. All clients and servers located in the municipalities were examined – they were not infected. For safety reasons, devices still have to be replaced on site and everything reinstalled, which takes a lot of time and involves a lot of effort.
The services of the 70 municipalities with a total of around 1.7 million citizens were practically paralyzed or severely restricted at the end of October – varying in type and extent. Since then, the disruption has been mitigated as much as possible on site with great effort and numerous emergency solutions.