Berlin Refuses to Pay Hackers Who Stole Data From the City's State Network
Berlin's state government confirmed it is the target of an extortion attempt following the August 2026 compromise of the city's state administrative network, and said it will not meet the extortionists' demands. Forensic work identified further data outflows in the portfolio of the Senate Department for Mobility, Transport, Climate Protection and the Environment, with exfiltration dated between 7 and 12 August; the department first reported an outflow on 7 August and was cut from the network on 14 August.
Berlin has published no official figure for what left the network — the attackers' leak site, indexed 28 August, claims 5.79 TB of data including personal information on 12,076 individuals. Der Spiegel named Rhysida as the group behind the attack, citing its darknet leak site and security sources, while the official statement identifies no group. Governing Mayor Kai Wegner said "the state of Berlin is being blackmailed". The case is a notable example of a government refusing to pay after a confirmed state-network compromise.