The hackers broke into the archive of the municipality of Thessaloniki, whose services are trying to restore its functions.
This is a digital ransomware attack (a practice that is increasingly used) in which attackers infiltrate a system and block critical functions, preventing the owner from using it.
The digital robbers sent a message to the municipal authorities, blackmailing and demanding a ransom for providing access to the network and critical files (such as payrolls), and also demanded an online meeting, according to police sources. While it is not specified which “window” they found open to enter the digital network of the municipality, they usually “catch” a phishing letter.
“All services of the municipality and cooperating companies are working intensively from the very beginning to restore all functions in the shortest possible time. We have data backups in the main functions of the municipality, such as transactions. Many other services, such as registry offices, are covered through their collaboration with other government agencies. “Starting tomorrow, we will see if there are any points that we cannot restore,” said the Mayor of Thessaloniki, Konstantinos Zervas, yesterday.
The municipality of Thessaloniki filed a lawsuit, and the mayor informed the Minister of the Interior M. Voridis, the Minister of Digital Government K. Pierrakakis and the Cyber Crimes Prosecution Service. “We need to see if there will be a second wave of attacks, if there are hidden malware that we need to remove,” added Mr. Zervas.
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