Cyber Incident Victim: Landkreis Fürth
Date:
Mar 2024
Location:
Germany
Summary
A distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack targeted the websites of a city and county in Germany, causing prolonged outages that disrupted citizens' access to online services including application submissions and appointment bookings. Attackers flooded servers with high-volume traffic from multiple international IP addresses, requiring external IT specialists to implement defensive measures while authorities maintained alternative contact channels via phone, email, and in-person visits. Core administrative systems and internal networks remained unaffected despite the sustained attack intensity.
| 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
On March 10, 2024, the websites of Stadt Fürth and Landkreis Fürth experienced significant disruptions due to a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack. The attack rendered the sites partially or completely inaccessible over the weekend, preventing citizens from accessing online services such as application submissions and form retrievals. Attackers coordinated the assault by flooding the servers with high volumes of requests originating from multiple IP addresses across various countries simultaneously. This deliberate overload caused severe server strain, creating a risk of systemic failure. The Stadt Fürth confirmed the cyberattack on Monday, characterizing the incident as being executed "with a certain seriousness" in a Facebook statement. Initial public reports emerged on March 10 at 21:35 when Landkreis Fürth acknowledged technical difficulties affecting its website functionality. Citizens were redirected to an external appointment-booking platform for essential services during the outage.
IT experts from the external agency managing the municipalities' servers immediately initiated defensive measures to mitigate the attack. By March 11 at 15:25, Landkreis Fürth confirmed ongoing efforts to repel the persistent assault, though website accessibility remained inconsistent. Critical internal systems, including municipal IT infrastructure and specialized administrative applications, remained operational throughout the incident. Both entities maintained alternative service channels, with offices accessible via telephone, email, and in-person visits. No data breaches or compromises of internal networks were reported. The coordinated attack exclusively targeted public-facing web servers, disrupting digital citizen services while preserving core administrative functions. Service continuity protocols ensured uninterrupted non-digital communication channels despite the prolonged cyber incident.