The Mayor of Potsdam, Mike Schubert (SPD), calls on the federal and state governments to provide the municipalities with more money for IT security. Data security is an elementary state task, but the municipalities alone cannot guarantee this for the citizens in the long term, said Schubert.
The digital administration of the city of Potsdam was offline for weeks around the turn of the year and in January after there were indications of a cyber attack. Citizen services were no longer usable. After a second shutdown, the administration only recently went back online .
Two to three million euros annually for more IT security
A prerequisite for this was that the city’s IT security precautions had been increased in the meantime, according to Schubert. Thousands of computers are said to have been upgraded. With the support of an external service provider, continuous monitoring of the IT systems is now also guaranteed. According to the mayor, the city pays two to three million euros a year for the additional security.
“We have to think about how we as municipalities can position ourselves much better when it comes to cyber security – financially and in terms of personnel, but especially with regard to the technical infrastructure,” said Schubert. That has “top priority” for him in the medium and long term. Schubert, who is also a member of the committee, announced that the presidency of the Brandenburg Association of Towns and Municipalities would also deal more intensively with the discussion on the subject of data security.
At the beginning of the most recent crisis situation in Potsdam, it was as if someone had “virtually locked the door and removed the key,” said Schubert. However, there was no loss of data in the attempted attack.
