NRW
Cyber attack paralyzes digital systems of 70 municipalities
Many administrations and town halls have been unable to work or only to a limited extent since Monday because of the cyber attack. photo
© Sina Schuldt/dpa/Illustration
A municipal IT service provider was the target of a cyber attack the night before last. This has consequences for more than 70 municipalities. Since then, many administrations and town halls have no longer been able to work or have only been able to work to a limited extent.
The malware was discovered on Monday night. The IT company then cut the connections to the users of its software in order to prevent the malware from spreading further within the network. SIT emphasized that they are in contact with the relevant authorities in order to advance the analysis to restore IT operations as quickly as possible.
Many administrations and town halls, especially in South Westphalia, have been unable to work or only to a limited extent since Monday. Citizens’ offices, immigration authorities and vehicle registration offices remained closed locally. Many online sites of affected municipalities and districts were not accessible. In some places, such as the Siegen-Wittgenstein district, administrations could neither be reached by email nor by telephone. Work is now underway there to build a new IT infrastructure.
Due to the scope of the cyber attack, the Central and Contact Center for Cybercrime (ZAC) NRW, located at the Cologne public prosecutor’s office, is leading the investigation. The inserted malware is now being analyzed to find out who was behind the attack, according to a spokesman for the investigative authority. It will also be checked which security gap the criminals used and whether data was stolen. However, the investigation into this was ongoing. The public prosecutor initially did not want to provide any information on the question of whether the cybercriminals tried to extort ransom money.