Federal authorities are investigating a hacker attack on the Berlin administration

The federal authorities have intervened in the investigation into the hacker attack on parts of the Berlin administration. The Federal Office for Information Security (BSI), the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) and the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) are involved, a spokesman for the Federal Ministry of the Interior said in response to a request from the dpa news agency. The detailed evaluation is currently being carried out by the responsible security authorities of the state of Berlin.

“All findings are compiled and shared in the Joint Cyber ​​Defense Center,” said the spokesman. The Rhysida group, which is held responsible for the leak, is known to the security authorities and has been active since mid-2021. "She is fundamentally considered criminal and financially motivated."

Berlin's Governing Mayor Kai Wegner (CDU) told Bild that after the sensitive data had been published, the goal was to "reach those affected as quickly as possible." Berlin had “become the victim of a serious crime,” he continued. Wegner initially said there was no evidence of the outflow of sensitive information. Now the governing mayor told Bild that “the state of knowledge today” is “different.” But Wegner couldn't yet say exactly what information was leaked: "We're in the process of examining that."

The federal and state governments are evaluating the data flow

The federal government also “carried out an intensive examination of its own data systems,” as a government spokesman said. However, “according to current knowledge,” these are not affected.

The responsible federal and state security authorities are currently evaluating the information about the data leak, as the government spokesman further announced. The information would be continuously compared between the authorities involved, including via the National Cyber ​​Defense Center. "After analyzing potential security risks, appropriate measures will be initiated to maintain military security."

Before publishing the data, the hacker group demanded a ransom of around two million euros in Bitcoin from the Berlin Senate Administration - otherwise 5.7 terabytes of stolen data would be published. The amount should be paid by Friday. Wegner told Bild that paying the ransom was never an option for him: "I am firmly convinced that I cannot allow a state to be blackmailed."

Daily attacks on the Berlin network

Nobody can guarantee that the data has actually been deleted after a payment. Wegner said: "If we had paid for it, who's to say that the data wouldn't already be somewhere else?"

The governing mayor confirmed last week that the city was being blackmailed following the data theft. Because of the hacker attack, the Senate Department for Urban Development, Building and Housing and the Senate Department for Mobility, Transport, Environment and Climate Protection were isolated from the state network for around a week on August 14th. Because of the cyber attack in Berlin, housing benefit could not be applied for or paid out for days.

Wegner told Bild that state networks are the target of cyber attacks every day. "We have hacker attacks on our network every day, not just in Berlin, throughout Germany." The vast majority of attacks are repelled. “Unfortunately this one is through,” said Wegner.