Cyberattack on municipal retirement homes in Mönchengladbach, Aerticket and more

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Sozial-Holding der Stadt Mönchengladbach GmbH has fallen victim to a cyberattack, the city administration has told dpa. As a result, the IT systems of the municipal retirement homes in Mönchengladbach have been paralyzed, as can be seen from a notice on the Sozial-Holding website. According to the notice, the facilities and the Sozial-Holding headquarters cannot be reached by telephone or email. The website refers to technical faults. According to a spokesperson, the Mönchengladbach administration is not affected. The social holding company told dpa that the provision of services to citizens is guaranteed. It is not yet clear when the IT systems will be up and running again. The company operates six retirement homes, among others.

Aerticket provides “Cockpit Light”

Following a cyberattack on Europe's largest flight ticket retailer “Aerticket” on March 9, there were technical failures that also affected the “Cockpit” booking system. As a result, the Berlin-based company provided the interim solution “Cockpit Light” about a week later – a slimmed-down version of Cockpit. According to Aerticket, a crisis team is currently analyzing the situation and reconstruction is underway. Only a small amount of data has been lost, and investigations are still ongoing. Around ten years ago, there was already a security breach at Aerticket. As a result, millions of passenger data could be accessed unprotected online.

Cyberattack on retail chain

The Swiss supermarket chain Spar is still dealing with the aftermath of a cyberattack. The world's largest retail chain with franchise companies has its roots in the Netherlands. EC devices and the goods ordering system were affected, and at times it was only possible to pay with cash in the Swiss supermarkets. The Swiss Spar Group has since announced that “operations can be maintained as well as possible despite the current cyberattack”. Since Saturday, payment by EC card has been working again “in almost all” stores.

“The delivery of goods to the stores was recorded, set up and delivered manually with great effort by Spar employees”. The Spar Group is still working on being able to offer a complete range of products, but asks for your understanding if not everything is available everywhere. The Group is not providing details of the attack.

Lack of cybersecurity standards

A recently published study shows that cybersecurity poses major challenges for local authorities in Germany. The main reasons for uncertainty are premature digitalization, a lack of uniform cybersecurity standards and slow action on the part of politicians. In particular, local authorities lack the financial and human resources to implement the necessary security measures.

The authors of the study criticize the confusing mix of state, federal and EU regulations, which make it difficult for local authorities to take organizational precautions. Ransomware attacks occur disproportionately frequently in municipalities, which not only leads to considerable operational restrictions, but also impairs basic administrative services, as shown by attacks on companies such as Südwestfalen-IT.

(mack)