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The hackers like to design the error messages after a hacker attack in particularly dramatic shades of red
Photo: Lino Mirgeler / dpa
The cyber attack on the Anhalt-Bitterfeld district has more far-reaching consequences than previously known.
The administration has lost access to an extensive database of environmental data dating back to the 1990s since the 2021 incident.
Because Bitterfeld was considered an ecological Chernobyl, the soil, sediment and groundwater at thousands of suspected contaminated sites were analyzed at that time and later transferred to a digital geographic information system.
Insiders speak of one of the most comprehensive environmental databases in Germany.
It is used, for example, to evaluate building permits.
A spokesman for the district confirmed the “interim loss of this program”.
For technical reasons, the database "cannot be easily integrated into the district's new IT system."
We are working on recovering the data.
Sometimes there are paper files and electronic data that can be accessed.
The processing of contaminated sites can »be carried out again without any problems as far as possible«.
more on the subject
How criminals wrestled down an entire district administration:»Anhalt-Bitterfeld district, you are fucked.
DO NOT TOUCH ANYTHING!«By Peter Maxwill
Russian Hackers' Blackmail Trojans: A Nearly Perfect Crime
Nancy Faeser's Plans: How Germany's Cyber Defense Should Become More OffensiveBy Wolf Wiedmann-Schmidt
From July 5, 2021, several servers in the district were infected with ransomware: the data was encrypted, offices were unable to work.
The county declared disaster mode.
A demanded ransom was not paid.
(Read more about a detailed SPIEGEL report about the hacker attack on the district here.)
Ransomware attacks are considered the greatest digital threat to the German economy, but authorities and even states are increasingly being targeted by hackers.
Security authorities assume that the perpetrators often operate from Russia.
(Read more about the attackers' criminal business model here.)
VAT