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Hackers steal police data from customs servers

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Hackers steal police data from customs servers
Photo: A screenshot of the hackers' site

The security of German government computer systems has come into question after hackers broke into the Customs Administration’s servers and stole data on Thursday night.

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The Interior Ministry announced on Friday that a group calling itself the

“No Name Crew” penetrated at least one customs server, stole data and published it on the internet at their website.

Among the data was information from the federal police that had been provided to customs. Authorities are now examining the accuracy and sensitivity of the data published.

“In addition, we are checking whether an attack of this type would also have been been possible on our (the police's) data and whether further security measures are necessary,” the police spokeswoman said.

She stressed that “no operational data from the federal police or the Federal Office of Criminal Investigation were published.”

A spokesman for the Interior Ministry said the group had initially announced Thursday night it was attacking the service of the Federal Police. This server was subsequently shut down by police. Shortly before midnight, information was posted on the internet that came from a Customs server.

Customs, federal police and the Federal Office for Information Security all examined the data.

There have been conflicting statements regarding the scale of the damage. The federal police said police data had been made available to customs through the geographic information system, “Patras.”

The No Name Crew claimed that “all data from some servers of the federal police” had been published.

Federal police said the Patras server was shut down and users warned.

The No Name Crew had previously hacked the servers of the far-right National Democratic Party and published sensitive information including a list of its donors.

DPA/The Local/djw

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