Berlin's city administration has become the target of a hacking attack, according to a report by broadcaster RBB. The State Chancellery said forensic investigations found that the state network had been compromised. Affected are the Senate Department for Urban Development, Building, and Housing, and the Senate Department for Mobility, Transport, Climate Protection, and the Environment. Both were isolated from the state network as a precaution to prevent further damage.
Completely cut off from the internet
According to RBB, both Senate departments have been completely disconnected from the internet since Friday evening, with communication only possible by phone since then. Berlin's Chief Digital Officer Florian Hauer assumes it was an external attack in which, according to RBB, sensitive data was also exposed. Sources within the authorities spoke of data that was in part highly sensitive, though exactly what information the attackers obtained isn't known yet. The State Chancellery has since confirmed that initial investigations point to a hacking attack, a word that hadn't appeared in the first press release.
RBB learned that the attackers apparently exploited a vulnerability in the IT operations of the Senate Department for Urban Development, Building, and Housing to attack the state network. According to the report, the state's own IT service provider ITDZ wasn't responsible for the flaw; the two affected departments apparently run their part of the state network independently. Green party representative Stefan Ziller criticized shortcomings in IT centralization in this context.
Departments operational, but offline
According to the State Chancellery, the affected departments remain operational. However, RBB reports that staff are offline and can't access their normal work systems. The State Chancellery hasn't commented on who might be behind the attack. Investigations are ongoing, led by the Berlin State Criminal Police Office and the Berlin public prosecutor's office.
Germany's Federal Office for Information Security has also been brought in. An emergency crisis team led by the state commissioner for information security has been set up, and the Berlin public prosecutor's office has opened an investigation. The Green party faction wants to discuss the security incident in the House of Representatives' digital committee. Representative Ziller wants to know, among other things, what vulnerability was involved, whether it poses risks to other participants in Berlin's state network, and what damage the data exposure could cause.
Berlin's state network is a high-speed data network for the administration that connects around 600 government and public sites via an underground fiber-optic network, operated by ITDZ Berlin. Besides the Senate departments, Berlin's police, fire department, and hospitals are also connected to it.