The websites of the Rheinische Post Mediengruppe media are apparently only of limited use following a cyber attack. The printed newspapers are also affected. The websites of the media of the Rheinische Post Mediengruppe can still only be used to a limited extent. Interested parties can currently see a slimmed-down ticker in which primarily reports from dpa are published. The Group’s IT service provider is also no longer accessible on the web.

As reported by WDR, the cyber attack has even affected the company’s printed newspapers. According to the report, the newspaper editions on Monday appeared as an emergency edition with 28 pages. The newspapers affected include the Rheinische Post, General-Anzeiger in Bonn, Aachener Nachrichten, Saarbrücker Zeitung and Trierischer Volksfreund.

Cyber attack leads to technical disruptions at IT service provider

The cyber attack on Friday evening caused technical problems at the IT service provider of Rheinische Post Mediengruppe, Circ IT, which affected the websites. The company then took the websites offline itself. According to WDR, no damage was done and no data was stolen. Those responsible for the cyber attack are still unknown.

It is currently not known whether it is a ransomware attack and, if so, what ransom demand is associated with it.

Threat of disaster through single point of failure

As seen recently with attacks on health insurance companies, the dependence of certain services on a single service provider resulted in prolonged outages. Given the increasing frequency of cyber attacks, security concepts should ideally provide alternatives for each step of the process flow, in the sense of a contingency concept.