A cyber attack on the Municipal Data Processing Association of the Neu-Ulm district has resulted in extensive system failures in the administrations of a total of twelve Swabian municipalities. Mainly affecting citizen service centers, as reported by BR24. The outages have been observed in the municipalities of Altenstadt, Bellenberg, Buch, Holzheim, Kellmünz, Nersingen, Oberroth, Osterberg, Pfaffenhofen, Roggenburg, Unterroth, as well as Horgau in the Augsburg district.
Since Wednesday, employees in affected administrations have been unable to access specific applications and data. Citizens urgently in need of new identification documents are being directed to neighboring municipalities to obtain temporary passes. For the time being, bills are being settled using traditional bank transfers.
While BR24 doesn’t explicitly mention ransomware, the attackers reportedly left a Word document instructing negotiation with them. The malicious actors seemingly aim to enforce a ransom demand. According to statements from the Bamberg Public Prosecutor’s Office, reported by the Süddeutsche Zeitung (SZ), data appears to have been encrypted in the incident – a typical ransomware attack.
The disruptions have affected the population register, financial and treasury software, as well as cemetery software, stated Mathias Stölzle, the chairman of the targeted association and the Mayor of the Roggenburg municipality. “No services can currently be offered in these areas,” added Stölzle.
Cyberattacks on German municipalities are on the rise. Recently, an attack hit the IT service provider Südwestfalen IT, impacting even more administrations: 103 city, district, and municipal administrations had to partially close to the public and resort to alternative emergency websites to continue offering essential services.
Other German municipalities faced DDoS attacks in October, causing temporary unavailability of web portals in cities like Dortmund, Cologne, Nuremberg, Dresden, Hanover, Bielefeld, and Frankfurt.
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