While the city of Frankfurt and its digital offerings and website were brought to their knees by a DDoS attack a few days ago, there was also a hacker attack on the Uniklink Frankfurt, which then cut off all internet connections and is now barely accessible.
A DDoS attack is one of the oldest types of attacks on the Internet, but it is still effective. The city of Frankfurt now also felt this. Their digital systems and homepage were massively overloaded for hours and therefore unavailable. According to various media, the Nuremberg and Dresden websites were also unavailable at the same time. No damage appears to have been caused. Only the image has a few scratches. The situation is different at the Frankfurt University Hospital, which has gone completely offline.
Hacker attack on Frankfurt University Hospital
There was already a cyber attack on the university clinic on October 06, 2023. The IT managers then reacted immediately and disconnected the entire clinic from the internet. The website of the University Hospital Frankfurt is also currently not accessible. Everything that has to do with the .kgu domain is currently paralyzed. All email addresses are still not working. There are only some collective email addresses available via emergency servers. Only the phone is still working perfectly at the moment.
The damage appears to be so massive that we are now working internally with small PC islands that are connected to an internal network. The other PCs with an external connection currently have no contact. In an interview with FR.de, the medical director and chairman of the board of the university hospital said: “To this day it is not clear to us whether and, if so, which structures exactly were manipulated.” At the same time, however, it is learned that it is assumed that no patient data was lost to have. Those responsible are already assuming that the overhaul and improved security of the IT structure will take until Easter.
Patient treatments probably secured
Even if the employees have to work a lot with paper and pen again, at least patient care is guaranteed and the emergency room is also available. However, certain processes will probably take longer. Neither side mentions how the university hospital was attacked. Typically, APT groups boast about their attack and extortion on their dark web pages. But there is currently nothing to see here.
Editor/sel