Digital | Hacker attack: After the catastrophe, before the catastrophe

Not so bad? Hackers gained access to 5.6 terabytes of data from the Berlin administration. Photo: dpa/Fabian Sommer Kai Wegner (CDU) has an ability that many people lack. He can still see the positive even in the worst situation. The Governing Mayor started his press conference after the Senate meeting on Tuesday with some good news. “The attack was stopped,” says Wegner. The serious hacker attack has been successfully contained and it can be ruled out that there are still uninvited guests in the Berlin national network.

However, this success story puts what had happened before into perspective. On Friday last week, a hacker group posted 5.6 terabytes - one terabyte is equivalent to 1,000 of the more common gigabytes - of data from the Berlin administration online, where it can now be downloaded by anyone. The hackers had previously demanded a ransom of two million euros, which the Senate was not prepared to pay.

It is still unclear which data exactly is affected. “Viewing the data is not as easy as you might imagine,” says Wegner. First, the huge data package would have to be downloaded in its entirety - that alone should take a week. The security-relevant ones would then have to be prioritized from the millions of data sets before changes, for example to emergency plans, could be made in the real world. However, the country's military defense capability is not at risk, assures Wegner. It can also be said with certainty that the House of Representatives election on September 20th will remain unaffected by the attack.

5.6 terabytes of data sets from the Berlin administration can now be downloaded by anyone.

In order to achieve “risk-based prioritization,” artificial intelligence will also be used, announces Berlin’s Chief Digital Officer – equivalent to a State Secretary – Florian Hauer (CDU). The AI ​​should first identify those that contain security-relevant information in the unmanageably large mass of data sets. People are then supposed to view the documents.

So far, individual documents with references to critical infrastructure have already been identified, says Hauer. Upon closer examination, several documents turned out to be less sensitive. “So far nothing with maximum criticality has been found,” says Hauer. If it is discovered that private individuals' data has been affected by the leak, they will be informed, he says. We are currently working on setting up a contact point that citizens can contact via email and possibly also a hotline.

To ensure that such attacks do not occur again in the future, the Berlin state network is to be structurally revised. This includes pooling staff from the districts at the Senate level. “The trend is towards centralization,” says Hauer. Investments also have to be made in the hardware. “It certainly won’t be cheap.”

In recent days, smaller steps have been taken to prevent further data leaks. All government employees had to change their passwords.

There was recently a dispute over the services of the US company Crowdstrike, which the Senate had commissioned. The Lichtenberg district did not want the analysis software that the IT giant would use to examine the network for possible vulnerabilities to be installed on its employees' computers. Crowdstrike programs were responsible for global IT failures in 2024, from which the capital's BER airport also suffered. The company also cooperates with the controversial IT security company Palantir.

Shortly before the Senate meeting, however, an agreement was reached with the Lichtenberg district, reports Wegner. Crowdstrike is the world market leader, says Hauer. "It was about getting help at short notice." German companies could not have provided the necessary resources.

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