The Church of Sweden under Cyberattack
Hackers have targeted the Church of Sweden in a recent cyber attack, demanding money and causing major disruptions to their operations. The attack, which occurred exactly one week ago, has left all common IT systems down and has caused extensive problems for the congregations around the country.
Pia Dahlén, head of communications at the Church of Sweden, stated that the hackers are demanding a ransom and that the church will not agree to their demands. She also confirmed that the church’s IT systems will take several weeks to rebuild.
As a result of the attack, the congregations are facing difficulties with salary payments, and employees will receive December payslips on paper. Moreover, the church’s booking systems and databases are not functioning, making it impossible to book weddings and funerals at short notice.
The situation has been described as a crisis, with the church’s operations severely impacted. Anders Lennartsson, a parish priest in Örebro, emphasized the amount of overtime and manual work required to recreate the systems that have been affected by the attack.
Ransomware, the type of attack the Church of Sweden fell victim to, is a virus that locks an IT system with demands for a ransom to unlock it again. The church has refrained from commenting on the specifics of the blackmail and expressed difficulty in protecting against such attacks.
Security experts from the company Truesec are looking into the cyber attack, and according to Marcus Murray, a cybersecurity expert at Truesec, the hackers are demanding a ransom, which can be traced through a known code used in the attack. Murray also highlighted the challenges in protecting against such cyber attacks and condemned the perpetrators for targeting a peaceful and apolitical organization like the Church of Sweden.
As the Church of Sweden continues to grapple with the fallout from the cyber attack, the members and congregations are left to navigate through the disruptions and inconveniences caused by the compromised IT systems. With a solution several weeks away, the Church of Sweden now faces the challenging task of restoring its normal operations in the aftermath of this cyber attack.