Berlin Refuses to Pay Hackers Who Stole Data From the City's State Network
Berlin's state government refuses to pay extortionists who stole data from its state administrative network. Forensic work found further data outflows in the Senate Department for Mobility, Transport, Climate Protection and Environment.
Intelligence analysis by Qwen 2.5 (3B)
Berlin's state government has refused to pay extortionists who breached its state administrative network, leading to data outflows and ongoing forensic investigations.
Berlin's government won't pay hackers who took data from their network. They're looking into it and trying to find out what happened.
Analysis
{"heading_1":"Forensic Work and Data Outflows","subheading_1":"Forensic Work","content_1":"Forensic work has been conducted to examine the scope and content of the data outflows. The Senate Chancellery stated that personal or other non-public data cannot be excluded from what was taken.","subheading_2":"Data Outflows","content_2":"The Senate Department for Mobility, Transport, Climate Protection and Environment reported an outflow on August 7, seven days before the network was cut off on August 14. The Senate Chancellery stated that the state criminal police, the public prosecutor, and federal security authorities are investigating the suspected perpetrators.","subheading_3":"Attacker Attribution","content_3":"Der Spiegel named Rhysida as the group that first reported the attribution on August 28. The group's darknet leak site claims to have scanned 5.79 terabytes of data and around 1.44 million files, identifying the victim as Berlin, Germany. The agencies' advisory on Rhysida details the group's tradecraft, including initial access routes and vulnerabilities exploited."}
Key points
- Berlin's state government refuses to pay extortionists who breached its state administrative network.
- Forensic work is being conducted to examine the scope and content of the data outflows.
- The Senate Department for Mobility, Transport, Climate Protection and Environment reported an outflow on August 7.
If Berlin's refusal to pay ransom works, it could discourage other governments from being blackmailed in the future.
If the hackers succeed in their extortion, it could lead to more data breaches and further damage to government networks.
