Berlin hack puts Wohngeld for 50,000 households at risk
A cyberattack on two Berlin Senate administrations has brought the city's district housing offices to a standstill, and the payment of Wohngeld to the more than 50,000 entitled households in Berlin is now at risk. The same applies to the Bildung und Teilhabe benefit, which covers school and activity costs for children in low-income families.
The attack was detected on Friday and confirmed by the Senate Chancellery on Monday. The administrations for urban development, building and housing and for mobility, transport, environment and climate protection were cut off from the Berlin state network to stop the damage spreading. The state criminal police, the Berlin public prosecutor's office and the federal office for information security are working on securing the network, and an emergency crisis unit has been set up. Staff were initially told on Friday afternoon that an IT update was coming; by Monday they had no access to email at all. One employee described the two houses as practically unable to work.
The effect reached residents this week. The Pankow district office has stated on its own website that because of the technical fault, no case processing is currently possible in Wohngeld, Bildung und Teilhabe, the housing entitlement certificate, the land register or misappropriation of housing. It added that Bildung und Teilhabe payments probably cannot be made either, that it does not know when the fault will be repaired, and asked people to stop calling to ask about the status of their case. The district councillor responsible in Marzahn-Hellersdorf and a spokesperson for the Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg district office both confirmed their housing offices are affected.
Wohngeld is normally paid at the end of the month. That is under two weeks away, and no repair date has been given.
If you receive Wohngeld or Bildung und Teilhabe in Berlin, the most useful thing you can do is not phone the housing office. The districts have specifically asked people to stop, and the staff cannot see your file either way. Plan on the basis that the money may arrive late. If your rent depends on it, speak to your landlord now rather than after a payment fails, because a landlord told in advance is a very different conversation from a landlord told afterwards. Keep any decision letters you already have, and check your district office's website for updates instead of travelling there.