One of Germany’s largest animal welfare associations for street dogs abroad has fallen victim to a very damaging hacker attack. Hunderettung Europa e.V., which is based in Duisburg, had its popular Instagram channel completely taken over by a malicious hacker. This important channel, with a proud community of 132,000 followers, had been painstakingly built up by dedicated volunteers over six years. The entire community was gone in one fell swoop last Saturday, May 31st, following this devastating and unexpected cyberattack. The association’s chairwoman, Svenja Gruszeczka, said they regularly changed passwords and also paid close attention to two-factor authentication security. The team does not know how this could have possibly happened, but suspects a volunteer may have received a phishing email.
On Saturday around 2 p.m., the volunteer team experienced a great shock when they suddenly could no longer log into their account.
Approximately one hour later, a hacker then contacted the animal welfare association by email in an attempt to extort money from them. The unmistakable and threatening message from the hacker stated, “I have your Instagram account, if you want it back, you have to give me money.” The association’s leadership immediately called the local police, who strongly advised them not to make any contact at all with the extortionist. The police explained there was very little hope of finding the hackers, as they are usually based abroad and are extremely hard to trace.
This malicious hacker attack has a direct and immediate impact on the vital work of this charitable animal welfare association.
The organization, according to its chairwoman, is financed exclusively by donations, most of which came via their popular Instagram channel. The association now desperately wants to rescue around fifty street dogs from a killing station in Romania this Friday, June 6th. These vulnerable animals are reportedly in a very bad condition and must be cared for, nursed, and also partly operated on. Without the crucial help of the large and very committed animal welfare community that followed them online, none of this would be possible. If they do not save these dogs, they will certainly die.
The association Hunderettung Europa supports various different animal welfare projects in several European countries such as Greece, Bulgaria, and Romania. It also supports many important animal welfare projects that are located within Germany, showcasing its widespread and very dedicated operational scope. The organization currently operates a large animal shelter in Romania, where four hundred dogs and one hundred cats are cared for every single day. In addition, they provide sustainable animal welfare through over one thousand monthly castrations of various street animals and also large educational campaigns. Their ultimate stated goal is to completely break the vicious circle of animal suffering and to eventually close all killing stations for them. This hack directly jeopardizes their entire humanitarian mission.
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