Munich (dpa / lby) – After a hacker attack by blackmailers, the Munich Caritas does not want to pay the criminals any money. The hackers had encrypted the Catholic Social Service’s computer servers and stolen data more than a week ago. Caritas should pay a ransom so that the computers can be used again and the tapped data is not published.
“This is a classic blackmail situation,” said Caritas director Hermann Sollfrank on Monday. “Apparently, the cybercriminals stop at nobody.” The board of the Caritas association decided not to respond to the criminals’ demands. Instead, the focus will be on building an alternative IT infrastructure. Thanks to existing data backups, this is possible in a timely manner.
The Munich criminal police are investigating the cyber attack. According to Caritas, an international group of criminal hackers has claimed responsibility for the attack. The gang is held responsible for a large number of attacks on the IT of large companies and organizations. At the social association, 350 services and facilities with around 10,000 employees are affected by the attack.
