Cyber ​​attack on Stadtwerke Schwerte: NRW on alert!

Cyber ​​attack on Stadtwerke Schwerte: NRW on alert!

A municipality in North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) has recently been the victim of a cyber attack. The Stadtwerke Schwerte are affected by this incident, which led to a disturbance of internal services and the customer portal. Despite the serious situation, there is an all -clear regarding the pension network of the municipal utility company, which was not affected by the attack. The municipal utilities are currently working with external service providers on a quick solution to the problem and have immediately informed the responsible authorities about the incident. Investigations into the identity of the attackers are also underway. According to Wa.de , however, the situation is less serious compared to a similar attack at the end of October 2023 in NRW concerned and in which a ransom was requested.

in the current cyber attack are affected by significantly more municipalities than in previous years. According to wdr.de , 27 municipalities in Germany were already exposed to the risk of cyber attacks. Interior Minister Nancy Faeser commented on the complex threat situation and called for a new priority for cyber security in Germany. Entrepreneurs and municipalities must be able to recognize hacker attacks faster, since, according to Andreas Lüning from G Data, attackers can currently operate undetected in companies for up to 200 days.

worrying cyber security situation

The recent incidents illustrate a trend that is also documented in the report on IT security in Germany in 2024, published by the federal cyber security authority. According to this report, the working method of cybercriminals has been professionalized. There are now established structures for criminal services in the cyber space that rely on various technologies. Digitization has significantly increased the attack areas, and the number of weaknesses that have become known daily has increased significantly. Critical security gaps were found in particular in perimeter systems such as firewalls and VPNs. bsi.bund.de emphasizes that ransomware attacks often have smaller and medium-sized companies and can confront these months with significant downtimes.

In the event of an earlier cyber attack on a municipal IT service provider in October 2023, 72 municipal customers and 20,000 jobs suffered under the effects, which illustrates the dimension of the threat. Ransomware attacks were recently captured by $ 1.1 billion ransom, with the number of hard figures hidden payments higher. According to the report, the BSI has made progress in the direction of resilient cybernation, but the challenges are still enormous and require increased cooperation between business, science and politics.

Citizens of Schwerte and other affected municipalities are currently asked to postpone appointments without time pressure, since inquiries and emails are incurred in large quantities and cannot be processed. Mayor Roland Schröder from Menden compacted in this regard that several thousand emails are received every day that cannot be answered.