Cyber Incident Victim: Hunderettung Europa e.V.
Date:
May 2025
Location:
Germany
Summary
Hunderettung Europa e.V. suffered a hacker attack on its Instagram account, resulting in loss of access and extortion demands; the group reported the incident to police and attempted to regain control through Instagram’s support in Dublin. The breach cut off a major donation channel that had supplied most of the funding for its animal rescue work, jeopardizing a planned operation to save about fifty dogs from a Romanian killing station and threatening ongoing projects in Greece, Bulgaria and Romania, including a shelter that cares for hundreds of animals and regular sterilization campaigns. In response, the volunteers began rebuilding a new Instagram presence under a different name to restore outreach and fundraising.
| CIA Posture | Motives | Tactics, Techniques & Procedures |
|---|---|---|
| Available to members | 1 motive | 1 technique |
| Threat Actors | Type | Location |
|---|---|---|
| 0 actors | Available to members | Available to members |
Description
The association Hunderettung Europa e.V. is based in Duisburg and is described as one of the largest nationwide animal protection groups for street dogs abroad. It was founded six years before May 2025 and is chaired by Svenja Gruszeczka. Over six years the volunteers built an Instagram account that grew to 132,000 followers. The association reported that it regularly changed passwords and employed two‑factor authentication. On Saturday, 31 May 2025, around 14:00 the volunteers could no longer log into the Instagram account. Approximately one hour later they received an email from a hacker demanding money. They immediately contacted the police, who advised them not to engage with the extortionist. The association also tried to reach Instagram’s responsible team in Dublin to recover the compromised account.
The association finances itself exclusively through donations, most of which came via Instagram. The loss of the Instagram account therefore threatened its funding. It had planned to rescue about 50 street dogs from a killing station in Romania on Friday, 6 June 2025. The dogs were described as being in very poor condition, needing care, feeding and partial surgical treatment. These measures required money that the association could not obtain without the Instagram community. Without sufficient funds the dogs would face death in the killing station. Beyond the rescue operation the group supports animal‑welfare projects in Greece, Bulgaria and Romania. It operates a large shelter in Romania that daily cares for 400 dogs and 100 cats. The shelter also carries out over 1,000 monthly sterilizations of street animals and conducts awareness campaigns. The stated goal is to break the cycle of overpopulation and to close killing stations. Additionally the association intended to build a shelter for Romanian street dogs in Duisburg or the surrounding area, but the ground search had been difficult and the hacker attack represented a financial setback.
After losing the original Instagram account the association started a new account under the name hunderettung_europa (with an underscore). The new account had accumulated roughly 21,000 followers at the time of the report. The association expressed hope that enough people would help so that senior shelter dogs and the dogs from killing stations would not be overlooked.