Several federal states affected by cyber attacks

Several public portals in the federal states fell victim to hackers.

The public prosecutor's office in Verden suspects a pro-Russian background.

Kassel – In times of digitization, hackers and cyber attacks are becoming more and more of a threat.

The most recent incident also shows this.

Several websites of public authorities, in a total of eight federal states, were hit by hacker attacks on Tuesday and Wednesday.

There are indications of a pro-Russian background.

Cyber ​​attack: Hackers attack a total of eight federal states

Websites of ministries or the police in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Saxony-Anhalt and Lower Saxony were already affected on Tuesday.

On Wednesday, the Schleswig-Holstein state portal, the website of the police in Brandenburg, the website of the state government in Saarland, websites of the Berlin authorities, as well as websites of the Ministry of the Interior and the police in Thuringia, followed the attacks on Tuesday.

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Hackers have paralyzed several public portals in a total of eight federal states.

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© Marko Lukunic/PIXSELL/IMAGO

Hacker attacks: There are indications of a pro-Russian background

On Tuesday, a platform of the German Development Ministry for reconstruction in Ukraine was affected again.

Nothing can yet be said about the connections between the attacks.

However, the public prosecutor's office in Verden suspects a pro-Russian background to the attacks in Lower Saxony.

There are indications of this, but it is being investigated in every direction, a spokesman for the public prosecutor told the German Press Agency.

Digital Minister: "We assume that the attacks were coordinated"

"We assume that the attacks in the various federal states were coordinated," Saxony's Digital Minister Lydia Hüskens from the FDP told the German Press Agency.

Some of the attacks were DDoS attacks, in which servers are deliberately overloaded with mass requests.

In Lower Saxony, access from foreign addresses has increased.

DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service)

A server is specifically bombarded with so many requests that the system can no longer cope with the tasks and, if necessary, collapses.

A large number of different systems are used in a large-scale coordinated attack.

A hacker distributes attack programs on hundreds to thousands of unprotected computers, which then become tools for the attack.

On command, a specific target is attacked and paralyzed.

Source: Federal Office for Information Security

Ralf Kleindiek, State Secretary for Digital Affairs in the Senate Department for the Interior, spoke to the RBB about an unprecedented attack on the websites of the Berlin state administration.

However, no data was stolen.

"There was no damage, except that the websites were temporarily unavailable," said Digital Minister Hüskens to the dpa.

Hacker attacks are no longer uncommon.

Protection is important.

In this way, administrations and consumers can protect themselves.

(Anna-Lena Kiegerl/dpa)

List of rubrics: © Marko Lukunic/PIXSELL/IMAGO