Allegedly hackers gained access to data about true DSL speeds in Berlin's households, waiting times for Anmeldung , and scandalous ratio of rental deposit returns from landlords. In short Berlin is cooked but it also always has been.
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Berlin is being blackmailed by hackers
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Re: Berlin is being blackmailed by hackers
#12Allegedly hackers gained access to data about true DSL speeds in Berlin's households, waiting times for Anmeldung , and scandalous ratio of rental deposit returns from landlords. In short Berlin is cooked but it also always has been.
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Interesting how all those flagged comments contribute nothing (as does yours), are gleeful in an antisocial way about leaked data, and the accounts posting them are all less than a month old (including yours).
Re: Berlin is being blackmailed by hackers
#13There’s no information of what was leaked besides ~5TB of data? And since they don’t intend to pay then they’ll just pretend nothing happened?
Neither the media nor politicians are interested in hyping up the issue right before the state election on Sep 20. So it's probably just what you suggested: pretending that nothing happened.
Anecdotally from another EU country, the politicians simply insolently ignore the data leaks. Victims will be punished though with a wave of "beware of scammers" communication, increasingly invasive identification, and institutional erosion of their privacy.
Re: Berlin is being blackmailed by hackers
#14Earlier quoted context omitted.
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Interesting how all those flagged comments contribute nothing (as does yours), are gleeful in an antisocial way about leaked data, and the accounts posting them are all less than a month old (including yours).
well, it would be foolish to think only reddit and other social media platforms are overrun with bots wanting to manipulate, shift sentiment and manufacture dissent.
Re: Berlin is being blackmailed by hackers
#15Earlier quoted context omitted.
Interesting how all those flagged comments contribute nothing (as does yours), are gleeful in an antisocial way about leaked data, and the accounts posting them are all less than a month old (including yours).
well, it would be foolish to think only reddit and other social media platforms are overrun with bots wanting to manipulate, shift sentiment and manufacture dissent.
it would also be foolish to think the sets "humans" and "those who write germany is a backwards country" never overlap.
(I've used "write" to account for bots in the latter set too).
Re: Berlin is being blackmailed by hackers
#16Earlier quoted context omitted.
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Interesting how all those flagged comments contribute nothing (as does yours), are gleeful in an antisocial way about leaked data, and the accounts posting them are all less than a month old (including yours).
Who is being anti-social? Those that gleefully damning Berlin for its incompetence or those that caused the incompetence?
The politicians who go play tennis while Berlin burns?[0] Politics in Germany and Berlin specifically has been extremely anti-social. From referendums[1] that get ignored to a decades old housing problem from which investors are the only benefactors. To positive social movements such as "zu Verschenken"[2] that get banned[3] ... because well ... because you're not meant to share.
I think the anti-social label is well earned on both sides of the fence. Only the politicians are meant to serve those that voted for them, not serve themselves.
The irony is that SAP/Oracle/MS/BCG and co. will benefit from this because the city will now spend more money on consultants that were meant to prevent this. "Nice data you have there, shame if it leaked like last time. How about some more licenses or consultants?"
[0] https://www.spiegel.de/panorama/berlin-buergermeister-kai-we... (german)
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deutsche_Wohnen_%26_Co._enteig...
[2] https://www.lostinberlin.com/the-zu-verschenken-culture-in-b...
[3] https://www.rbb24.de/panorama/beitrag/2025/08/berlin-bussgel... (german)
Re: Berlin is being blackmailed by hackers
#17How could this have been prevented?
Serious question that anyone familiar with the "Verwaltung" (Administration) here in Berlin should ask themselves. Because the fact is, it couldn't have been.
For one thing, how does one analysis and find vulnerabilities in a system? By doing pen-testing but is that legal here? Why didn't someone from the CCC[1] or BSI[2] actually do a pen-test and discover the vulnerability that was used?
Particularly the CCC who like to point fingers and complain about how bad security is. Why didn't they simply do a pen-test and tell the "Verwaltung" about what they found? Probably because they knew that the "Verwaltung" would proceed with legal fixes instead of system fixes, i.e., making hacking even more illegal than it already is.
Meanwhile all the Consultants that the city pays pretended everything was super secure because well ... well because it all Microsoft so it must be secure. We even have the licenses to prove it.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaos_Computer_Club
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Office_for_Information...
Re: Berlin is being blackmailed by hackers
#18Earlier quoted context omitted.
Interesting how all those flagged comments contribute nothing (as does yours), are gleeful in an antisocial way about leaked data, and the accounts posting them are all less than a month old (including yours).
Who is being anti-social? Those that gleefully damning Berlin for its incompetence or those that caused the incompetence? The politicians who go play tennis while Berlin burns?[0] Politics in Germany and Berlin specifically has been extremely anti-social. From referendums[1] that get ignored to a decades old housing problem from which investors are the only benefactors. To positive social movements such as "zu Versch…
Everything you say is true but obviously I am talking about the people putting their Schadenfreude on display.
Do you think Berliners are happy that the referendums they voted for are getting ignored? The current mayors party has the lowest approval ratings ever. The current chancellor of the same party is the most hated in German history.
And then come some big-shots here talking about how it's well-deserved that a city of 4 million people got hacked and who knows what data leaked.
Re: Berlin is being blackmailed by hackers
#19How could this have been prevented? Serious question that anyone familiar with the "Verwaltung" (Administration) here in Berlin should ask themselves. Because the fact is, it couldn't have been. For one thing, how does one analysis and find vulnerabilities in a system? By doing pen-testing but is that legal here? Why didn't someone from the CCC[1] or BSI[2] actually do a pen-test and discover the vulnerability that w…
I think it has to do with the fact, that "white" hacking is illegal? I am sure people would like to help out and harden the systems.
But i am also not sure, what actually happened. Once ya in a system, all is lost.
And the culture around credentials is in my opinion a lost case anyways. I do not know where IT has gone a wrong path. Either security it is super high and you can not do anything (hello bureaucracy) or you can do more, but you become more vulnerable.
Anyways. Data is the new Oil, government said.
Re: Berlin is being blackmailed by hackers
#20Isn't 2 million euros a bit of a lowball demand for a city the size of Berlin? In any case, it's good they're not paying.
That‘ll teach the bad guys! Pity about all those that will have their private data auctioned off. I‘m sure that the good guys will catch the badies in the nick of time to prevent a data auction. Just in time for a good game of tennis and a happy end. Thanks to Hollywood we have nothing to worry about. I‘m glad _they_‘re not paying and really looking forward to having my private data turn up somewhere I never intended…
I'd rather they not pay and my data gets leaked along with everybody else's, than for them to pay and give incentives for future blackmail.