German database company GBI Genios says ransomware attack took out servers and disrupted communications

German database company GBI Genios said it experienced a significant cyber security incident that took several of its servers offline and caused a general outage that could last several days.

 

GBI Genios is a database company whose services are used by numerous libraries, media houses, universities and companies. The Munich-based company is a subsidiary of Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and the Handelsblatt Media Group, and its range of offerings include 300 full-text newspapers to 60 million company information items to e-books, topic dossiers and work aids for daily practice.

 

In a recent post on LinkedIn, the company said that due to a “massive ransomware attack” several of its systems are currently unavailable and its communication options limited.

 

“We are working at full speed on the remedy, but unfortunately we have to assume an outage for several days,” reads the post. “Our communication options are also limited. We will inform you as soon as we can foresee when access will be possible again. We apologize for the inconvenience and hope for your understanding.”

 

A spokesperson for Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, the database provider’s parent company, said that the ransomware attack did not affect its systems and the cyber security incident was limited to Genios.

 

“Only those applications from our archive, which are hosted by Genios, are currently not available,” the spokesperson said.

 

While the company is yet to share details about the cyber security incident, several clients of Genios confirmed being affected by the ransomware attack. Kempten University, a user of the WISO database provided by Genios, said the database is unavailable at the moment.

 

“Due to a hacker attack on the WISO database, it is currently unavailable. The WISO e-books in our library catalog are therefore not accessible.

 

“The database provider Genios is working on a solution. Unfortunately, at the moment we have to assume that there will be an outage for several days. As soon as WISO is available again, we will inform you here,” the University said.

 

The University of Giessen also confirmed the unavailability of its WISO database. “Databases from the provider GENIOS (WISO) and the FAZ library portal are currently not accessible due to hacker attacks or technical disruptions. We are working hard to find a solution to the problems,” the University posted on its official website.

 

Another client of Genios, Heilbronn City Library, said that it is facing disruption to daily operations due to a “massive hacker attack” on the servers of Genios press platform.

 

As of now, no hacker group has claimed responsibility for the ransomware attack on GBI Genios and the company has not mentioned whether it received a ransom demand or if any data was exfiltrated from its internal network.