media
Funke Mediengruppe registers cyber attacks on websites
Several media houses in Germany report cyber attacks. Photo: Sebastian Gollnow/dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
In the midst of the war in Ukraine, German media companies are increasingly dealing with malware on the Internet. The background is unclear.
The Funke media group has registered Internet attacks on its websites in connection with reporting on the war in Ukraine.
In the live blog of the group’s “Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung” (WAZ), which contains news regarding the Russian attack on Ukraine, it said on Friday evening: “The websites of the daily newspapers, magazines and reach portals of the Funke media group have been Attacked in several waves tomorrow by so-called bots.” A bot is automated software designed to cause harm.
There is also increased bot activity on the brands’ pages in social networks. Readers have to be prepared for this: “The attacks can sometimes delay the updating of our pages.” The media group also said that measures had been taken to ward off further attacks.
Other houses are also affected
Problems were also registered with the “Frankfurter Rundschau” (FR), which belongs to the Ippen Media network, especially in the social media area. FR editor-in-chief Thomas Kaspar tweeted on Thursday: “Our community team reports that pro-Putin trolls and bots are flooding the comment columns of our social media appearances.”
On the website of the daily newspaper, Kaspar also informed on Friday: “Since the troops were relocated to the border of Ukraine, the number of comments on our website and in our social media appearances has increased noticeably.” The community team, which looks following all digital Ippen offers together in a maintenance program, always reports the same pattern. In addition to FR’s social media profiles, those of other media brands in the Ippen Media network were also affected.
It is not the first time that it has become public knowledge that there has been a cyber attack on the Funke media group. Such an attack had already occurred in December 2020 – with serious consequences. At times, newspapers might only appear in emergency editions. The group had felt the consequences of the attack in the house for weeks.
