After a hacker attack: Senate departments back online

Two Senate departments were taken offline due to a hacker attack. (File photo)

Following the cyberattack on Berlin’s state network, the two affected Senate departments are back online. “All Senate departments are once again connected to Berlin’s state network and are, in principle, operational,” announced Berlin’s Governing Mayor Kai Wegner (CDU).

According to the Senate Chancellery, this means that the specialized procedures used in the districts are, in principle, available again. “However, it cannot be ruled out that there may still be occasional disruptions and delays in work processes at the outset.”

The hacker attack was discovered on August 14

For security reasons, the two Senate departments—the Department of Urban Development, Construction, and Housing, and the Department of Mobility, Transportation, Environment, and Climate Protection—were subsequently disconnected from the state network. Since then, they have been cut off from the Internet but have generally been able to continue working internally.

Immediate Steps to Improve the IT Security

However, the problems affected areas under the jurisdiction of those departments. This included the disbursement of housing assistance and benefits under the education and participation package for children and adolescents. The Senate Chancellery announced that the two Senate administrative offices had implemented immediate measures to enhance their IT security. “This also includes continuously increased monitoring of their IT systems.”

Wegner thanks the participating institutions

“I would like to thank CDO Florian Hauer and the staff at the Senate Chancellery, the ICT emergency response teams, the Senate Departments for Urban Development, Construction, and Housing, and for Mobility, Transportation, Climate Protection, and the Environment, the Federal Office for Information Security (BSI), the State Criminal Police Office, and the Public Prosecutor’s Office for their outstanding work over the past few days,” said the Governing Mayor.