When the hunter becomes the hunted: The international IT service provider Materna fell victim to a cyber attack on March 25 and is still dealing with the consequences to this day. The piquant thing about it: In 2022, the Austrian IT security specialist Radar Cyber Security was taken over in order to be able to offer customers an improved defense service.
What exactly happened at the end of March at the IT consultancy Materna SE from Dortmund, with annual sales of around 400 million, can only be guessed at. The company has been reporting on its website for weeks that it has become the target of a professionally designed network-level cyber attack. For this reason, some systems have probably been switched off or disconnected from the network. Therefore, some systems and services are not accessible for security reasons. E-mail and telephone communication, as well as general operational communication processes, continue to be disrupted.
Network level cyber attack
What exactly happened in the attack at the network level can only be guessed at. The most likely: in the case of a remote attack, access to the network is then allowed if successful. With this approach, data is often first extracted before a ransomware is placed and executed. Apparently, Materna had not yet established its own acquisition of the IT security specialist Radar Cyber Security - RCS. The RCS helps companies to set up a Secure Operations Center (SOC) and also offers a “SOC as a Service” as an additional service. In this way, the aim is to support companies in recognizing and fighting a cyber attack at an early stage.
The attack apparently also hit the hosted website, which was completely disabled. For weeks there has only been a static information page with a few indications that an attack has taken place and that the consequences of the attack are being worked on. The company does not provide any further information, current steps or even a current status on its website.
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