Cyber attack on Saxony-Anhalt: Pro-Russian hackers put portals lame!

Cyber attack on Saxony-Anhalt: Pro-Russian hackers put portals lame!

On Thursday morning, Saxony-Anhalt felt the power of cybercrime: several websites of the ministries were not available for a short time. The reason was a massive cyber attack, which was carried out by the Prorussian hacker group "Noname057 (16)". According to Rnd were overloaded with a flood of inquiries. Fortunately, the affected pages were quickly restored, but there were minor restrictions, especially on the press release page, the central goal of the attack.

Behind the attacks is the increase in Noname057 (16) activities, which has intensified its DDOS attacks against German organizations in recent weeks. This group obviously also has prominent destinations in Germany in their sights, including large companies such as Bayerische Landesbank or Baywa AG and even several cities such as Cologne and Düsseldorf. Their attacks not only seem to be annoying disorders, but possibly politically motivated reactions to current geopolitical developments, such as the plans of Federal Chancellor Friedrich Merz, to send Taurus-Kreuzer-Missiles to Ukraine, such as Daily Security Review

Current developments in cyber security

But what about general cyber security in Germany? The report of the BSI The situation of IT security shows that there are worrying trends: Cybercriminals have professionalized to use their To carry out attacks. The number of high-volume DDOS attacks increased in the first half of 2024, and it is not without reason that the critical weak points that were discovered in systems such as firewalls or VPNs is repeatedly discussed.

The state government of Saxony-Anhalt began in 2024 to use new technologies to recognize and defend such attacks. Safe defense measures have been activated and geoblocking is being considered to exclude the areas from which the attacks come. An advertisement against the attackers is also given for discussion to set an example.

In this tense situation, it remains to be seen how effective the measures to strengthen cyber resilience will be. The cooperation between manufacturers, operators and consumers is crucial to effectively counter the threats from cybercrime. Digitization enlarges the attack areas and ensures new challenges. It is clear: there is still a lot of work ahead of us!