Cyberattack: Ludwigshafen City Administration Unreachable

The city administration of Ludwigshafen shut down its data processing systems at the end of last week after anomalies were detected in the network. During the ongoing investigations, indications have intensified that a cyberattack has taken place. The systems will remain offline for a few more days, the city announced. It is currently neither reachable by phone nor digitally.

The Ludwigshafen city administration has compiled the status in a PDF. According to this, unusual activities in the city administration's network apparently already occurred on Thursday of last week. The monitoring systems triggered an alert, after which the systems were shut down around 10:30 a.m. – as a precaution to prevent damage. "No reliable and binding statements can be made about the cause and origin of the anomalies in the municipal data network at this early stage," the city administration initially explained. External IT specialists were brought in for the investigation. The systems can only be gradually restarted after careful examination.

Situation on Sunday

It is still unclear whether data from citizens is affected. However, based on the initial investigations, the city assumes that no data has been exfiltrated. Nevertheless, indications have intensified that it is indeed a cyberattack. The origin and cause of the anomalies in the municipal data network remain unknown.

The municipal IT is continuing to investigate the systems for infiltrations together with external service providers. "The further checks of the data network will take at least the entire coming week, possibly longer," the city administration explains. It is possible that the first services can be put back into operation, but it cannot be said whether and when.

In the week before, the website of the city of Trier was the target of cyberattacks.

(dmk)