Berlin Is Being Blackmailed By Hackers (bbc.com)
(Monday August 31, 2026 @11:00AM (BeauHD)
from the PSA dept.)
- Reference: 0185310832
- News link: https://it.slashdot.org/story/26/08/31/0229251/berlin-is-being-blackmailed-by-hackers
- Source link: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cm2q7gv3l5qo
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the BBC:
> Berlin is [1]being blackmailed by hackers who were able to compromise city systems and steal data earlier this month, its mayor has said. Kai Wegner said officials would not cave in to the ransom demand, which came on Thursday evening. He did not say how much was being sought, though Der Spiegel reports the hackers are demanding 30 bitcoin, worth around 2 million euros. Some of the German capital's online systems were forced to close down as a result of the attack, while investigators were working to understand what data had been taken.
>
> The Rhysida group, which is thought to operate from Russia and eastern Europe, and was behind a previous attack on the British Museum, has reportedly taken responsibility. It has said on its website it intends to begin auctioning the 5.79 terabytes of data it was able to steal from Berlin in seven days' time, according to news agency Reuters. [...] Officials for the city-state said an initial data leak occurred between August 7 and 12. Then, on August 14, two department networks were shut down, making applications for housing benefits and payments impossible for several days.
"Berlin will not be blackmailed," Wegner said on Friday.
He said state police, prosecutors and federal security services were working to investigate the suspected perpetrators "with the utmost urgency," adding that inquiries into the "content and scope of the compromised data are being pursued with great intensity."
[1] https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cm2q7gv3l5qo
> Berlin is [1]being blackmailed by hackers who were able to compromise city systems and steal data earlier this month, its mayor has said. Kai Wegner said officials would not cave in to the ransom demand, which came on Thursday evening. He did not say how much was being sought, though Der Spiegel reports the hackers are demanding 30 bitcoin, worth around 2 million euros. Some of the German capital's online systems were forced to close down as a result of the attack, while investigators were working to understand what data had been taken.
>
> The Rhysida group, which is thought to operate from Russia and eastern Europe, and was behind a previous attack on the British Museum, has reportedly taken responsibility. It has said on its website it intends to begin auctioning the 5.79 terabytes of data it was able to steal from Berlin in seven days' time, according to news agency Reuters. [...] Officials for the city-state said an initial data leak occurred between August 7 and 12. Then, on August 14, two department networks were shut down, making applications for housing benefits and payments impossible for several days.
"Berlin will not be blackmailed," Wegner said on Friday.
He said state police, prosecutors and federal security services were working to investigate the suspected perpetrators "with the utmost urgency," adding that inquiries into the "content and scope of the compromised data are being pursued with great intensity."
[1] https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cm2q7gv3l5qo
We're Not Paying (Score:2)
by SlashbotAgent ( 6477336 )
We're tough. We're not paying. Fuck Hackers.
Besides, it's all constituent data that he doesn't care about anyway. It's a problem for them, not him.
Publishing the shady contracts will be a benefit (Score:3)
by ffkom ( 3519199 )
It will be only to the benefit of all tax payers when all those secretive shady contracts the "Berliner Senat" signed with commercial contractors, and is unwilling to tell the public about, are exposed. "Information Freedom", while theoretically mandated by law, has eroded in recent years, to the point where politicians routinely use the "but there are business secrets in that contract, therefore we cannot tell you about them"-pretense to keep the public uninformed what all the money is drained into.
Re: They can't do this (Score:1)
Lawyers must be scratching their hands eyeing the money from the class-action suit to be opened against the municipality, in case citizens data leaks