Berlin Refuses to Pay Hackers Who Stole Data From the City's State Network

Berlin's state government has formally rejected extortion demands following a cyberattack that compromised the city's state administrative network. The German capital will not comply with the attackers' requests despite confirmed data exfiltration occurring between August 7 and August 12, 2026.

Forensic investigations revealed unauthorized outflows of data primarily from the portfolio of the Senate Department for Mobility, Transport, Climate Protection and Environment. While the exact scope remains under review, authorities cannot exclude that personal data belonging to citizens was taken. The incident has drawn attention to potential gaps in network security, particularly given previous warnings about the threat actor's tradecraft involving exploits like Zerologon (CVE-2020-1472) and phishing campaigns.