After a cyber attack on a company in Bern: stolen data from the federal government has disappeared from the dark web

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According to the National Cyber ​​Security Center (NCSC), stolen federal data has disappeared from the dark web in a cyber attack. These include, for example, confidential documents of the Federal Security Service, including the security arrangements for state guests and federal councilors, as reported by the Sunday newspaper “NZZ am Sonntag”. The addresses of the federal councilors and other buildings under protection should also have been found on the darknet.

According to the NCSC, the sensitive data was activated on the night of June 14 by the group ‘Play’ on the dark web. However, according to the NCSC, they have since been removed. He does not know why the data is no longer available.

Login details can also be compromised

According to the media, the hackers also responded to arrest and extradition requests from Interpol and search reports in cases of suspected serious criminals. In addition, federal office credentials could have been published, it said.

However, so far there is no evidence that anyone would have wanted to use the information to access a federal IT system, the NCSC said. In addition, several security measures were taken in the federal administration immediately after the ransomware attack, including changing all access data and logins.

Various procedures are underway

One of the agencies affected by the data theft, the Federal Police Service (Fedpol), did not want to confirm on Sunday the publication of individual documents or their topicality or context, “so as not to anticipate the various ongoing and announced investigations”. .

Fedpol now wants to clarify the circumstances under which the operational data reached the private servers. That is why it has also filed a report against unknown persons.

The hackers used ransomware to attack a vulnerability on the servers of the Bernese IT service provider Xplain and steal data from the federal government there. Not receiving a ransom, they published the first data from Fedpol and the Federal Office for Customs and Border Protection (BAMF) on the dark web on June 3. Then, about two weeks ago, they posted further operational data from the federal administration on the dark web. The federal prosecutor’s office has started proceedings.

The Bundesrat set up a crisis team

The Federal Council on Wednesday approved the mandate for a crisis team called “data outflow”. This is to coordinate the work after the hacker attack. “It must be ensured that this outflow of data does not continue and that something like this is no longer possible in the future,” said Federal Councilor Karin Keller-Sutter (59) on Wednesday. She described the data outflow as “disturbing”.

In addition, the Federal Council wants an independent body to investigate whether, where and why the federal safety requirements have been poorly implemented. It is unclear how a private IT provider gained access to the sensitive data.

Finally, the federal government evaluated and analyzed the incident and the affected data package. The Federal Council assumed that this could take several weeks to months. It was said that there were several million files. (SDA/lha)

Source:Blick