February 16, 2016
Technical trade secrets were stolen from the steel production and manufacturing plant design divisions of ThyssenKrupp AG in cyber attacks earlier n 2016. ThyssenKrupp was the victim of an economical espionage campaign carried out by hackers based in Southeast Asia. The company said the hackers’ goals were to breach its network and steal technological know-how and research from its industrial research branches.
December 20, 2022
German ThyssenKrupp AG said today that it’s fending off a cyberattack against its Materials Services division and corporate headquarters. The form of attack was not disclosed. The attack is said to have been noticed at an early stage by the company’s cybersecurity staff and efforts are underway to limit the attack and bring it to an end. No other sections of ThyssenKrupp have been affected by the attack.
No cybercriminal group has yet accepted responsibility for the attack.
November 21, 2021
On November 10-11, Kisters AG in Germany was hit by a ransomware attack. Kisters AG is a critical infrastructure supplier for energy systems with the potential for downstream compromise. The software provider, which specializes in the energy industry, has shut down the system “to prevent further damage”. Their website reports a new IT infrastructure was built. Close to normal operations was resumed by January 12, 2022.
October 14, 2022
Attack at German newspaper ‘Heilbronn Stimme’ impacted the entire Stimme Mediengruppe media group, which includes the companies ‘Pressedruck’, ‘Echo’, and ‘RegioMail.’ The newspaper published Saturday’s 28-page issue in e-paper format after a Friday ransomware attack crippled its printing systems. Phone and email communication remained offline during the weekend. Ransomware attack encrypted all systems.
The regional publication has a circulation of about 75,000 copies, but due to printing issues has temporarily lifted the paywall from its website, which counts approximately 2 million visitors per month.
August 24, 2022
German multinational automotive group Continental suffered a cyberattack back in August and while the company said it successfully avert the assault, a ransomware group is now threatening to divulge information it said it stole during the hack.
In an August 24 statement, Continental said “in a cyberattack, attackers infiltrated parts of Continental’s IT systems. The company detected the attack in early August and then averted it. Continental’s business activities have not been affected at any point.
UPDATE: German business newspaper Handelsblatt reported in early November that the hackers had stolen around 40 terabytes of data from the company. The FBI is also involved in the investigation. Continental did not provide any information on the possible economic consequences in the statement. The reason for the lengthy internal investigations is partly due to the extent of the data leak. The company must analyze more than 55 million file entries from the list in the darknet.
The theft was said to include sensitive data from customers such as Volkswagen Group, information on supervisory board meetings and correspondence from chief controller Wolfgang Reitzle.
October 26, 2022
Enercity, one of Germany’s largest municipal energy suppliers, confirmed it was targeted by a cyberattack on Wednesday morning. The Hannover-based company said its security systems “reacted immediately” and that “greater damage to the company” has been averted. Enercity confirmed that it would continue supplying energy to customers, explaining its operational technology and critical infrastructure was not affected. “Our grids and power plants are stable and the security of supply is guaranteed,” the company stated. However the attack has impacted customer service, which has limited availability. The company added: “Not all IT systems can currently be used to their full extent, which means that they may be minor restrictions.”
October 21, 2022
Aurubis, Europe’s largest copper smelting company, sustained a cyberattack. The company believes it was targeted as part of a larger campaign against the metals sector. It responded by shutting down certain IT systems and isolating them from the Internet. Its core industrial processes have continued to function. “The production and environmental protection facilities at the smelter sites are running, and incoming and outgoing goods are also being maintained manually,” Aurubis said. “Transitional solutions are being implemented to make the company’s full services available to business partners again starting next week. Customers and suppliers can still reach their Aurubis contacts by phone.”
October 17, 2022
International wholesale giant METRO is experiencing infrastructure outages and store payment issues following a recent cyberattack.
The company’s IT team is currently investigating the incident with the help of external experts. Even though its stores are still operating, METRO says that it was forced to set up offline payment systems and that online orders are delayed.
June 27, 2017
German skin care company Beiersdorf said it was a “target” of the cyberattack, which affected its IT and telephone systems. The firm’s headquarters in Hamburg, as well as its affiliates around the world, were affected. While Beiersdorf expects sales worth roughly €35 million ($41 million) to be shifted from the second quarter to the third, the company does not expect a material impact on its profits for this year.
September 10, 2020
University Hospital Düsseldorf (UKD) in Germany suffered a cyberattack. Through an unpatched vulnerability, hackers penetrated the hospital’s network with ransomware, forcing planned and outpatient treatments and emergency care to have to occur elsewhere. A patient died after being forced to go to another hospital.
The ransom notes left on the hospital’s encrypted servers were incorrectly addressed to Heinrich Heine University, rather than the hospital itself. After the police contacted the threat actors and explained that they encrypted a hospital, the ransomware operators withdrew the ransom demand and provided a decryption key.