Spain and Portugal experienced a devastating blackout. Could this happen in Germany, too? What will the next German government do to better protect critical infrastructure?

Berlin

Germany's critical infrastructure came under scrutiny after a cyber attack hit the county of Anhalt-Bittefeld, affecting around 160,000 residents between Berlin and Leipzig. The incident unfolded when Sabine Griebsch, chief digital officer of the area, received early morning reports of encrypted files and non-functioning computers. Initially perceived as a minor issue, the situation escalated as more complaints emerged, revealing a serious cyber attack.

The attack was attributed to a hacker group known as Pay or Grief, who demanded a ransom of 500,000 euros to be paid in the cryptocurrency Monero. The county's IT department considered their options carefully. Oliver Rumpf, the IT manager at the time, questioned the guarantees of receiving a decryption key post-payment and raised concerns about potential backdoors left by the hackers. Consequently, the decision was made not to pay the ransom, highlighting the precarious nature of cyber negotiations and security concerns.



How secure is Germany's critical infrastructure?

Sabine Griebsch is the chief digital officer in the county of Anhalt-Bittefeld, an area between Berlin and Leipzig, home to around 160,000 people. In the summer of 2021, the county's administration fell victim to a cyber attack. It was early in the morning. At 6.30 a.m., the first call reached the IT department. Someone turned on their computer and said, nothing's working here right now, files are encrypting. I was working from home and got a call. When I went in, we still assumed we have an attack now that will be solved in a very short time and that everything will be resolved within the next few days. But more calls started coming in. Employees from all over the district complained that their computers had stopped working. The IT expert team searched the system and came across a ransom note. You are f***ed. They were addressing us personally. Someone had clearly spent time preparing this attack. That's when they knew this wasn't just another cyber attack. This time, it was really serious. When the computer of the IT administrator with all of the rights encrypted itself, that's when we knew we had a problem. The hackers were part of a group called Pay or Grief. They demanded 500,000 euros as a ransom, paid in the cryptocurrency Monero. The IT manager at the time, Oliver Rumpf, explains why the district decided not to pay. We had to ask ourselves, OK, if we pay the ransom now, will we really get the key then? Plus, we knew they had been in our system. Who's to say they didn't put some backdoors to attack us again and encrypt again?

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