A cybercriminal group known as Rhysida allegedly broke into the network of Berlin’s state government and exfiltrated 1.44 million files. They then tried to extort the government entity for money and when that failed, they leaked it all into the dark web.
According to multiple sources, the group first claimed responsibility for the attack on an underground forum, where it shared a small sample of the stolen files and demanded Berlin pay 30 bitcoin (around $2.3 million) in exchange for deleting the files.
Berlin recognized the attack in a press release, and said it would not be negotiating with the attackers, and instead launched a full-scale investigation into the incident, which it described as an “extremely serious crime and an attack on the state of Berlin.”
Read more…
Source: TechRadar News
Sign up for the Cyber Security Review Newsletter
The latest cyber security news and insights delivered right to your inbox
Related:
- Germany to spy on far-right AfD party, reports say
March 3, 2021
Germany’s intelligence services have designated the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party as a suspected extremist group, according to local media. The nationalist party is already under surveillance in a number of German states, but the decision means its activities can be observed nationwide. However, MPs and members of the European Parliament will be excluded from any ...
- Silver Sparrow Malware Found Nesting on 30K Macs
February 19, 2021
Hard on the heels of a macOS adware being recompiled to target Apple’s new in-house processor, researchers have discovered a brand-new family of malware targeting the platform. Curiously, in the samples seen so far by analysts at Red Canary, the malware (dubbed Silver Sparrow) has been executing on victim machines with the final payload yet to ...
- Digitally Signed Bandook Trojan Reemerges in Global Spy Campaign
November 30, 2020
A wave of targeted cyberattack campaigns bent on espionage is cresting around the globe, using a strain of a 13-year old backdoor trojan named Bandook. According to Check Point Research, Bandook was last spotted being used in 2015 and 2017/2018, in the “Operation Manul” and “Dark Caracal” campaigns, respectively. The malware then all but disappeared from ...
- German COVID-19 Contact-Tracing Vulnerability Allowed RCE
November 19, 2020
A security vulnerability in the infrastructure underlying Germany’s official COVID-19 contact-tracing app, called the Corona-Warn-App (CWA), would have allowed pre-authenticated remote code execution (RCE). Researcher Alvaro Muñoz wrote in a report this week that he and his team at GitHub Security Labs were chasing down RCE vulnerabilities on the platform and found one in the infrastructure ...
- EU sanctions Russian hackers over 2015 German parliament attack
October 22, 2020
The Council of the European Union today announced sanctions imposed on Russian military intelligence officers part of the 85th Main Centre for Special Services (GTsSS) for their involvement in a 2015 hack of the German Federal Parliament (Deutscher Bundestag). EU’s sanctions include both travel bans and asset freezes and also block EU organizations and individuals from ...
- German authorities raid FinFisher offices
October 14, 2020
German authorities have raided the offices of FinFisher, a German software company that makes surveillance tools, accused in the past of providing software to oppressive regimes. The raids took place earlier this month, on October 6 and October 8, and were ordered by the Munich Public Prosecutor’s Office. Raids took place at locations across Germany and Romania. ...