Berlin Faces Massive Ransom Demand After City‑Wide Cyber Breach

Berlin’s mayor, Kai Wegner, announced that the city has been blackmailed by hackers who successfully infiltrated municipal systems and stole a staggering 5.79 terabytes of data earlier this month.

The attackers, identified as the Rhysida group—a cyber‑crime collective believed to operate out of Russia and Eastern Europe—published a demand of 30 Bitcoin, worth roughly €2 million. Despite the threatened ransom, Wegner stated that Berlin will not concede to the extortion.

The attack disrupted several vital online services. Between 7 and 12 August, a data leak was first observed, followed by the shutdown of two department networks on 14 August, which halted housing benefits and payment applications for days. Forensic teams later uncovered additional compromises within transport and environmental departments, with potential exposure of personal and non‑public data.

Authorities are conducting a rapid investigation in collaboration with federal security services. The mayor’s office confirmed that the scope of the compromised data is a matter of high intensity and urgency, yet the identities of the attackers remain undisclosed.

Evidence supplied by the Rhysida group includes contracts, non‑disclosure agreements, personnel files, passwords, and thousands of personal contact details. The group has threatened to auction the stolen data after a countdown, beginning with an initial price of 30 Bitcoin.

The incident comes just a month before Berlin’s federal election. State senator Iris Spranger, however, insisted that election infrastructure has not been affected.