Hacker attack paralyzes Tullner Citizens' Service: Chaos in the town hall!

Hacker attack paralyzes Tullner Citizens' Service: Chaos in the town hall!

Tulln, Österreich - A cyber attack has hit the city administration of Tulln hard. According to noe.orf.at the screens in the Bürgerservice Schwarz remained on Wednesday and the cash books must be managed by hand. The hackers encrypted the data of the city administration in the night from Monday to Tuesday, which affects almost all administrative activities. City office director Viktor Geyrhofer said that no invoices can currently be transferred in accounting. Nevertheless, basic services such as the issuing of registration notes are still available, even if there can be delays in the case of more complex matters such as building permits.

Cybercrime is a growing threat to public administrations, said Robert Luh from the St. Pölten University of Applied Sciences. In many cases, these authorities are attractive goals for hackers, since they have valuable data and are often paid high ransom demands. In the event of an earlier attack on Korneuburg, the responsible exorbitant sums in Bitcoin were demanded, which led to a total of around 100,000 euros. The attacks are carried out by professional organizations that often reorganize themselves after arrests, according to the reports.

challenges of digitization

Regardless of these incidents, a study by iltis.de that the digitization in citizens' offices brings with it both advantages and disadvantages. While electronic information provision is highly valued, employees report an increasing workload of mechanisms such as constant email achievability and software problems, which leads to stress and overwhelming. In some cases, digitization, which should actually simplify the processes, rather ensures delays, especially when processing more complex cases, because important connections between the media are missing.