No sensitive data appears to have been stolen in the hacker attack on Berlin's state authorities. "That is the current state of knowledge," Berlin's Governing Mayor Kai Wegner (CDU) told journalists on Wednesday. Postal voting documents for the upcoming election to the Berlin House of Representatives can now be requested online again. For one day this had not been possible because of the cyberattack, Interior Senator Iris Spranger (SPD) said.
According to the current state of knowledge, the IT systems needed for the elections on September 20 have not been affected. There are, however, still problems with housing benefit: as Wegner explained, it currently cannot yet be applied for or paid out,
The two affected Senate departments have been isolated from the state network since Friday for security reasons. They are still not reachable via the internet. According to Wegner, this could take a few more days, even though work is being carried out "at full pressure". The departments concerned are the Senate Department for Urban Development, Building and Housing and the Senate Department for Mobility, Transport, the Environment and Climate Protection.
Berlin's Chief Digital Officer Florian Hauer spoke of a "significant hacker attack", which had, however, been detected at an early stage. "There is an intruder in the network, or at least there was one," he said. The task now, he added, is "to contain and isolate this threat".
Because of the attack, an emergency task force is meeting in Berlin under the leadership of the State Commissioner for Information Security, Olaf Kroll-Peters. The case is classified as what is known as an "ICT incident". This is an attack that can impair the security of network and information systems and have consequences for the availability, authenticity or confidentiality of data or services.
The State Criminal Police Office and the public prosecutor's office are investigating and, according to the information provided, are in "close contact" with the federal security authorities, including the Federal Office for Information Security. More precise information, for example on suspects, is not yet available. For reasons relating to investigative strategy, the authorities did not want to name any details.
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