Due to a hacker attack on the Sparkassen subsidiary Leasing AG, thousands of employees and customers can no longer access the system (symbolic image). © Piero Nigro/aal.photo/IMAGO/Symbolbild
The Sparkassen subsidiary Deutsche Leasing AG was the victim of a serious hacker attack. Both customers and employees no longer have access to the system.
Bad Homburg – There was a serious hacker attack on the Sparkassen subsidiary Deutsche Leasing AG. Over 2,500 employees were asked not to come to the office on Monday and Tuesday due to ongoing investigations. Even customers – especially medium-sized companies – cannot access the systems. It is not yet clear when the IT systems can be restarted, a company spokeswoman said on Tuesday evening (6 June), according to Handelsblatt information. Cyber attacks are a growing threat in Germany, also in view of the Ukraine war.
Extent of the damage unclear: Hacker attack on savings bank subsidiary already discovered on Saturday
It was initially unclear who was responsible for the attack and what motives were behind it. A ransom note has not yet been received, the company spokeswoman said. Likewise, the full extent of the damage is still the subject of the investigation, such as whether the hackers were able to tap into data. It is not yet foreseeable when the employees can be brought back into the office, it said.
Already on Saturday, internal security systems had noticed the unauthorized access, according to a message on the company's homepage. According to the emergency plan, they reacted immediately and switched off access to the systems. "Currently, we cannot access a large part of our IT systems and our data," the statement continues. "Since the weekend, we have been working at full speed with external IT security consultants to analyze the attack and secure traces." The relevant investigative authorities are involved. Initially, the e-mail system was also unavailable, but this damage has now been repaired, according to Handelsblatt information.
Hacker attack not an isolated case: German security authorities warn of high threat levels in cyberspace
According to security authorities, the threat situation in cyberspace is high in Germany. Hacker attacks can affect companies such as the Dax group Rheinmetall or the car repair shop ATU, but also municipalities, governments or critical infrastructure. In the district of Anhalt-Bitterfeld, for example, important citizen services did not work for 207 days last year due to an attack. In a large-scale global wave of cyber attacks at the beginning of the year, a mid-three-digit number of public institutions and companies in Germany were affected, according to the German Federal Office for Information Security (BSI).
According to BSI Vice President Gerhard Schabhüser, the Federal Republic of Germany narrowly avoided a crisis in two cases last year. A Russian attack on a satellite system has also paralyzed the remote maintenance of many wind turbines in Germany. On the other hand, the supply of gasoline and mineral oil in northeastern Germany had been jeopardized by a presumably pro-Western hacker attack on the German subsidiary of the Russian energy company Rosneft. Cyberattacks are part of Russia's hybrid warfare.
