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How did hackers trick Berlin's city government?

11:13

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Ole Alsaker
September 13, 2026

Berlin is dealing with the biggest cyberattack in its history after hackers stole nearly 6 terabytes of government data in a ClickFix scam and demanded a €2 million ransom. How did it happen?

How could a single employee's mistake expose vast amounts of data from Berlin's state administration network?

DW's Ole Alsaker speaks with cybersecurity experts Sandro Gaycken and Bianca Kastl about the social-engineering tactic behind the attack, why the breach went undetected for so long, and the difficult decision not to meet the attackers' demands. They examine what the incident reveals about weaknesses in public-sector IT security and the potential consequences for citizens.

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