Threatened by Putin's cyber warriors: Freising authorities and companies have upgraded

Created: 03/18/2022, 19:00

By: Helmut Hobmaier, Manuel Eser

Attacks from the shadows of the web: Fears of cyber attacks from Russia are growing.

However, authorities and companies in the district feel well prepared.

Symbol © dpa

A hacker attack paralyzed data processing in the Fürstenfeldbruck hospital.

The district of Freising is preparing for such a scenario.

District

– It was a software meltdown: Four years ago, electronic data processing at the Fürstenfeldbruck Clinic was completely paralyzed for a week.

The disaster began after an e-mail attachment containing malware was opened.

This spread rapidly in the network of the hospital.

All 400 computers had to be laboriously “cleaned” one after the other.

A scenario that all important institutions in Germany currently have to reckon with.

The government believes in a massive attack by Putin's cyber army on local "high value targets".

How are the "vital organs" and large companies in the district protected from this?

hospital

The Klinikum Freising uses various security concepts to secure data and protect it from unauthorized access.

"We use a multi-stage virus scan concept for our servers, groupware and clients," reports spokesman Sascha Alexander.

"Furthermore, we operate separate data centers to ensure a high level of reliability and have a multi-level backup concept for data storage." To be on the safe side, unchangeable "snapshots" of the file servers are created every full hour and patient data are stored separately.

Alexander: "In addition, the file servers are constantly monitored for unusual and malicious activities." A stringent user concept is also important.

In addition to all of these proven mechanisms, the Freising Clinic also has a defined emergency plan for emergencies.

City of Freising

The city bundles the software competence in the office for IT and information technology.

"Regardless of the current warnings of cyber attacks and/or general appeals to be prepared for IT emergencies, this office constantly ensures that the security systems are up-to-date," reports City Hall spokeswoman Christl Steinhart: The systems are constantly checked to ensure they are up-to-date and updated – the so-called “patch management”.

(By the way: everything from the region is now also available in our regular Freising newsletter.)

System documentation is available for possible emergencies (e.g. recovery or restart).

In addition, backups of data are made daily, with different storage times and locations.

In addition, there is system documentation at various levels of detail in order to be able to react in a targeted and competent manner after possible attacks.

Steinhart: "Like all companies and administrations, we hope that the serious cyber attacks mentioned will not occur in our country, despite these security measures that have been tried and tested over many years and have been implemented with great effort and care."

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“The danger of cyber attacks can never be completely averted.

However, companies and authorities can take measures to minimize the risk," emphasizes Robert Stangl, spokesman for the district authority.

The Freising district office is “well positioned” with regard to IT security.

On the one hand, one is already well protected via the Bavarian authorities' network, which can already fend off some potential attacks before they even reach the district administration.

On the other hand, the district office uses the information security management system (ISMS) "ISIS12".

Stangl: "The core idea of ​​this system is a continuous improvement strategy, which is why we regularly evaluate the individual security measures and adjust them if necessary.

These measures also include an emergency plan for the IT infrastructure in the event of a cyber attack.

There are fixed instructions for this, depending on the type of attack, which then have to be processed.

There is also an emergency manual and a recovery plan for our data center.”

Stadtwerke Freising

Stadtwerke Freising feels well prepared and equipped, says Managing Director Dominik Schwegler.

"As an energy supplier, we have an obligation to have our security system certified." However, he does not reveal exactly what the public utility's cyber protection screen looks like - for good reason: "The first lesson you learn to protect yourself is: Never reveal how and what you do.”

You can read all further information on the Ukraine war and its effects in Bavaria here on our Ukraine refugees topic page.

However, Schwegler also points out that ultimately everything can be solved manually in his company.

"Of course we have arrived in the digital age, but when it comes down to it, we simply have the employees on site." It doesn't have to be about a cyber attack. It's also important to be able to repair everything manually if a data cable is hijacked.

Freising Bank

When it comes to IT, Freisinger Bank has been relying on the proven solutions of Atruvia AG for years, a leading European bank IT service provider of the cooperative financial group.

"Atruvia and its teams of experts are constantly taking comprehensive measures to minimize risks and dangers for the bank network and to identify and avoid cybercrime at an early stage," reports Andrea Stommel, board member.

Atruvia is basically well prepared and has established extensive cyber security measures by default.

"So far this has worked well and Freisinger Bank has not been hacked," says Andrea Stommel.

“We are confident that this will remain the case.

In the event of a hacker attack, of course, like our IT partner companies, we have extensive emergency plans in place.” To date, Freisinger Bank has not noticed any increased demand from companies in the region for cyber insurance, reports Stommel.

"We have insured such risks ourselves."

The IT giant TI

The explosiveness of the topic is made clear by the clear statement by the Freisinger-based IT giant Texas Instruments: "Thank you for your inquiry," it said.

“Texas Instruments has taken adequate IT security measures.

Please understand that we cannot provide any detailed information on security-related questions."