German District Hit by Cyberattack, "Paralyzed" by the Hack
The German municipality of Anhalt-Bitterfeld, a part of the Saxony-Anhalt German state, found itself in what officials call a "cyber-catastrophe" after a hacker attack.
Yet unidentified hackers brought down the IT systems of the German municipality. A spokesperson for the Anhalt-Bitterfeld region stated that the region's municipal infrastructure was "almost completely paralyzed" and chances are it will remain this way for the next few days, probably a whole week.
There have been no comments on who the bad actors might be or whether the hack was a ransomware job or not, with the authorities declining the disclosure of any additional information because of an ongoing police investigation into the incident.
Anhalt-Bitterfeld is a rural district and according to 7News Australia, the municipal IT network was likely outdated and highly vulnerable to cyber attacks. The region's population is close to 160 thousand people, who now cannot receive any sort of municipal services. The Australian news site reports that Anhalt-Bitterfeld probably declared the incident as a "catastrophe" so that it could seek assistance from the federal German government, right at the top level.
Germany's federal cybersecurity agency has dispatched a team to deal with the situation in the affected region. The scope and extent of the damage done by the hackers has to be significant because even though other regions in the country had been hit by hackers in the past, this is the first instance where a municipality has declared a "catastrophe".
Several other news outlets called the attack the first cyber-catastrophe in Germany, noting the significance and the heavy impact of the attack. While there is no information on the specific nature of the attack, ransomware is a very likely culprit, given the gravity of the situation according to the local authorities, as few other types of malware have that sort of stopping power.
This incident is hot on the heels of a series of high-profile attacks, most of which were focused on US corporations and large businesses, including Colonial Pipeline and JBS.
