Berlin Mayor Kai Wegener admitted, in an interview published on Saturday, that sensitive data was stolen as a result of a cyber attack on the German capital's municipality in August.
The RBB General Group confirmed that the electronic pirates published more than a million of this data on Friday via the dark web (Dark Web), after their request for a ransom in exchange for refraining from doing so was not responded to.
Der Spiegel weekly reported that the stolen data included protection procedures within the Berlin fire service, payrolls, banking information, digital copies of official identities, confidential information related to employees, and files related to the expansion of the German Chancellery's headquarters.
In an interview with Bild newspaper published on Saturday, Wegener admitted to stealing the data, once again refusing to give in to blackmail by hackers.
He asked: “Who guarantees that if we pay (the ransom), this data will not remain for a long time somewhere else?”
Local media reported that the value of the ransom was approximately two million euros.
Chancellor Friedrich Merz's government is closely following the information and investigation related to the leak of this data.
According to local reports, a hacker group known as “Rhysida” is behind the cyber attack, which has previously claimed responsibility for attacks, most notably on the British Library in London in the fall of 2023.
The group then demanded a ransom of more than 760,000 euros from the ancient library. In light of the fact that its request was not met, the group published about 500,000 files on the dark web that included the personal data of visitors, subscribers, and employees.
Due to the cyber attack that occurred on August 14, several departments in the German capital, especially the departments concerned with housing and the environment, were unable to access the network for a week. This led to the inability to submit and disburse housing subsidy applications for days.
The Berlin state government said today (Saturday) that it is reviewing with the utmost scrutiny a set of stolen data, while investigators try to assess the scale and impact of the cyber attack. This electronic attack on the Berlin network comes less than a month before elections in the state on September 20.
The International Atomic Energy Agency said on Saturday that a ceasefire in Zaporizhya brokered by the agency had entered into force to enable repairs to be made with the aim of restoring energy supplies to the Russian-controlled Zaporizhya nuclear plant in southeastern Ukraine.
The station has been cut off from external power supplies since August 20, and it relies on emergency diesel generators to cool its critical safety systems.
The United Nations agency said that the station's diesel fuel reserves are running out, and it faces the risk of a complete power outage within days unless power is restored or more diesel is transported to the site.
She added that Ukrainian technicians are scheduled to begin work to repair the damaged Viroslavna electricity line, after removing mines from the area, according to Reuters.
Russian forces seized the plant, which is the largest nuclear power plant in Europe, in the first weeks of the war in Ukraine in 2022.
Alexei Likhachev, head of Rosatom, said that a temporary ceasefire entered into force this morning in the vicinity of the station to create the necessary conditions for repair work, and it is expected to last about a week.
He added that repairing the Virosplavna line would not necessarily guarantee the resumption of external power supplies to the station. He said that another electricity line was repaired on July 23, but was not reconnected due to what he described as the inaction of the Ukrainian authorities, and Ukraine did not comment publicly on the ceasefire or Likhachev's statements.
During the war, Moscow and Kiev regularly accused the other of carrying out military actions that endangered nuclear safety.
British far-right leader Nigel Farage sought to downplay the new donations scandal sparked by an investigative media investigation, which overshadowed the annual conference of his Reform UK party this week. Through the conference, Farage hoped to overcome the controversy surrounding financial gifts he received by clarifying his party’s policies if he was able to form a government in the future, including cooperation with the French anti-immigration National Rally party. But hours before his speech, two senior party officials resigned after a Channel 4 investigative report said they conspired to solicit foreign donations, which is prohibited under British electoral law.
The party said in a statement that the head of the policy department, James Orr, and Farage's veteran aide, Dan Jukes, have stepped down from their positions pending the results of an internal investigation, as reported by Agence France-Presse.
Foreign financing
The ruling Labor Party was among the competing parties that said it had informed the police about the “Reform Party,” against the backdrop of accusations that it had received funding from an American company to conduct three opinion polls commissioned by it earlier this year. The supposed donors were journalists working for the investigative journalism group Verbatim. The London Metropolitan Police said it was “aware” of the reports.
During a press conference on Friday, Farage denied the accusations that the Reform Party had previously received hidden foreign donations, describing them as “passing gossip,” but he acknowledged that the statements made by Orr and Jukes were “unwise at best.” He added: “This was a lure operation to trap us. “Let me be clear: the party did nothing wrong, and did not receive any illegal funds.” Delegates at the conference held in Birmingham, central England, also downplayed these accusations. Conference delegate Darren Paul expected that the uproar would not affect the party's prospects. The 51-year-old, who works in the security field, told Agence France-Presse: “I think (Reform) will definitely be in power. We need it. Reform is the only party that can save this country. Immigration is huge for the UK. “It should be addressed.”
British-French cooperation
The party's main focus is on its anti-immigration policies, in particular putting an end to the arrival of thousands of irregular migrants on boats to the south coast of England. While reviewing pledges on immigration, the party’s spokesman for internal affairs, Zia Youssef, told the conference that if “Islah” was able to form a government, it would “deploy the Royal Navy to stop the boats” and “deport every foreign citizen who entered the country irregularly.”
Jordan Bardella, head of the French anti-immigration National Rally party, addressed the conference and pledged that under a Rally-led government, France would no longer be “a gateway for illegal immigration to the United Kingdom.”
Opinion polls give the National Rally an advantage over its competitors in the French presidential elections scheduled for 2027, and Bardella and Farage announced a memorandum of understanding for cooperation on the crossing of migrants if their parties win the elections, in a move that sparked controversy in France.
Meanwhile, the British Labor government stated that the number of boats carrying migrants and asylum seekers across the Channel reached its lowest levels this summer since 2019, partly due to existing cooperation agreements with the French government.
Accumulation of accusations
Farage, who is aspiring to become prime minister, seeks to maintain the momentum achieved by his party in the by-elections that took place in May. Strict security measures were imposed at the conference center, and the speech was delayed by about an hour due to long queues at the entrances. Until late July, Reform had been leading in the polls for more than a year, but has fallen recently with intensified scrutiny of its finances and a rebound in Labor's popularity under new Prime Minister Andy Burnham.
The parliamentary oversight body is investigating a £5 million donation from British cryptocurrency billionaire Christopher Harborne to Farage, who said the money was intended for his security. The Islah leader says that he received the money before his election, and therefore he was not obligated to disclose it to the parliamentary authorities.
Farage remains the most prominent figure in the “Reform” party, as the latter’s rise is closely linked to his political personality as a populist who opposes the existing political establishment. The party's vice president, Richard Tice, also faces charges of not disclosing financial donations he received. The party hopes to consolidate its position as a major competitor to the ruling Workers' Party on the right front. He currently has only eight seats in the 650-seat Westminster Parliament, despite obtaining 14 percent of the vote in the 2024 general election.
But the party also faces competition from the far-right Restore Britain party led by Robert Lowe, a dissident from the Reform Party, which has attracted a group of its supporters.
