Berlin's Digital Chaos: Berlin.de Back Online After Cyber Ruckus
Berlin's Capital Access Via Senate Office's WebsiteBerlin's Gateway Restored on Senate Office Site - Berlin's Capital Portal, accessible through berlin.de, has been reinstated by the Senate Chancellery.
Yo, the Berlin.de portal is up and running again, despite a nasty cyber shenanigan that's given our tech squad quite the headache. The Senate Chancellery spilled the beans with a warning to watch our backs as some restrictions may still be in play.
The digital dance-off took down both Berlin.de and service.berlin.de, but don't worry, the Senate's got your back. If you need to book an appointment at citizen's offices, you can still use the old-school 115 government hotline or the federal portal.
The trouble started during the weekend, and it was a good old-fashioned Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack where servers were drowned by a deluge of requests. Luckily, our data stayed put and safe as houses. The bad guys remain unknown, and they could've been anyone with a beef against Berlin! This isn't the Senate's first rodeo; a similar attack happened in April 2023.
- Berlin
- Cyberattack
- Portal
Enrichment Data:The April 2025 DDoS attack on Berlin's digital infrastructure left everyone scratching their heads, and here's why:
Timeline and Scope
The attack kicked off on Friday, April 25, 2025, with shady characters flooding servers with excessive requests. Affected systems included:- Primary state portal (berlin.de)- Service portal (service.berlin.de)- District websites and court portals- Administrative intranet and subdomains
The crunch time lasted through Saturday, with partial service restoration by Sunday. Core services were back on track by Monday evening, but intermittent disruptions lingered into Tuesday.
Operational Impact
Critical citizen services got put on hold:- Appointment booking systems (Bürgeramt, immigration offices)- Digital administrative services- Information portals
In a bind? Choose the state hotline 115 for urgent appointments. Kudos to the federal portal for dodging the bullet and staying operational.
Security Assurances
Exhale! The Senate Chancellery confirmed no data breach occurred, making this more of a 21st-century prank party. The tech wizards did their thing, restoring services with appropriate secrecy.
Investigation Status
Nobody laid claim to the caper. Finger-pointing remains inconclusive, with this attack sharing similarities to a 2023 Berlin incident, although no direct links were uncovered. The Senate keeps mum on the ongoing investigation, leaving everyone guessing about the attack's origins as of April 29.
- The cyberattack that struck Berlin's digital infrastructure in April 2025 affected not only the primary state portal, berlin.de, but also service.berlin.de, district websites, court portals, the administrative intranet, and its subdomains.
- Following the cyberattack, critical citizen services such as appointment booking systems at Bürgeramt and immigration offices, digital administrative services, and information portals experienced interruptions.
- Despite these disruptions, Berlin's digital chaos showed signs of improvement, with the Senate Chancellery confirming no data breach occurred during the attack and the services being slowly restored.
- In order to book an appointment at citizen's offices during the downtime, the old-school 115 government hotline or the federal portal were offered as alternatives for Berlin residents.