Hacker attack on Hoppegarten: Administration fights for security!

Hacker attack on Hoppegarten: Administration fights for security!

The community of Hoppegarten in the Märkisch-Oderland district was the target of a hacker attack last week. According to information from the rbb24 The authorities were informed of the incident by the State Criminal Police Office (LKA). Deputy Mayor Peter Große confirmed that several city hall employees reported an attack that had already occurred, apparently over the weekend.

The attackers, whose origins can be traced back to Ireland, are said to have gained access to the administration via the email program. In response to the incident, the municipal administration decided on Sunday to disconnect the IT infrastructure from the Internet. This means that only internal means of communication can be used. External communication is currently impossible by telephone or email.

Consequences of the attack

The impact of the attack is far-reaching. Not only the central municipal administration is affected, branch offices such as schools and kindergartens have also been taken offline. The exchange of data with external service providers is blocked, which severely limits the processing of important applications. Emergency numbers for the public order office and the residents' registration office have been set up to deal with urgent inquiries.

To deal with the situation, the municipal administration called in external IT consultants. Investigations by the authorities are already underway and the LKA has filed a complaint for attempted computer sabotage. However, so far there is no further information as the investigation is still ongoing. It remains unclear when the systems will be online again, as the restoration can only take place under secure conditions.

Security situation in Brandenburg

This incident in Hoppegarten highlights the general security situation in the IT infrastructure of state institutions. There was already a serious data protection incident at the LKA Brandenburg at the end of last year Privacy Prince reported. A citizen accidentally had access to a secret state security network storage that was accessible via an inadequately secured WLAN.

The security gap was fixed as quickly as possible and the Federal Criminal Police Office completed the data exchange with the LKA. The Interior Ministry assessed the incident as serious and announced investigations to clarify possible oversights. Despite these incidents, no evidence of data misuse has been published so far, which raises the question of how secure the IT infrastructures in the authorities actually are.

The events in Hoppegarten not only serve as a local wake-up call, but also underline the need to review and enforce modern safety standards in public facilities nationwide. Cyberattacks are a real threat and security requirements must be adjusted accordingly to prevent such incidents in the future.