The Fraunhofer Institute for Microstructure of Materials and Systems (IMWS) in Halle has been hacked. All systems on site were immediately taken offline and shut down as a precautionary measure, a spokesperson for the State Criminal Police Office (LKA) announced on Wednesday. "According to current knowledge, this is a local incident that only affects the Fraunhofer IMWS." The Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk had initially reported.

According to the LKA, the institute has already reacted comprehensively and taken precautions to limit the damage as much as possible. The situation is under control. "According to the current state of knowledge, data was stolen and data was encrypted." However, it is not yet possible to determine the exact extent of the damage.

Data offered for sale

According to the LKA, the data has been offered for sale. According to a "Watson" report, the perpetrators demanded around 2.2 million US dollars for 320 gigabytes of data on a darknet platform.

The cyberattack was accompanied by a "ransom demand from the blackmailer", the LKA announced. However, the Executive Board of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft rejected such a payment.

The LKA spokesperson did not say when the cyberattack took place. The spokesperson also did not want to speculate on the possible perpetrators. However, he warned that every third company in Saxony-Anhalt is now affected by cybercrime.

According to their own statements, the Fraunhofer Institutes offer research services. They work for clients from industry and the public sector. The IMWS in Halle focuses methodically on the specialist disciplines of materials science and materials engineering. It is a point of contact for industry and public clients for all issues relating to the microstructure of materials and systems.

The work of the Fraunhofer IMWS aims to identify defects and weak points in materials, components and systems on the micro- and nanoscale, to clarify their causes and, based on this, to offer solutions for customers.