Volunteers Unsettled

Red Cross Upper Austria Hit by Phishing Attack

The Red Cross Upper Austria was also the target of a phishing attack.(Bild: Wolfgang Spitzbart)

No quick fix here: Employees of the Upper Austrian Red Cross are unsettled by a phishing attack. On October 10, attackers used fake websites to steal work email login credentials from individual employees. They then used the compromised email accounts to send out additional phishing messages. 

Furious, a Red Cross employee vented his frustration in an email to the “OÖ Krone”: “Lately, there have been massive hacker attacks against the Upper Austrian Red Cross, resulting in phishing emails being sent to all employees statewide. I’m very concerned and wonder if my personal data is safe with the Red Cross? Or has it perhaps already been stolen?”

We reached out to the Upper Austrian Red Cross at
. Here are their responses: “Yes, the Upper Austrian Red Cross was affected by a phishing attack beginning on October 10. Thanks to measures implemented quickly and existing technical security precautions, the impact was limited. Our employees also made an important contribution to containing the incident through their vigilance and excellent cooperation. The Upper Austrian Red Cross is working closely with external experts to investigate the incident and secure our systems. No further phishing emails have been sent from Red Cross employees’ accounts since last Friday. The situation has since stabilized significantly and is under control,” a spokesperson told the “Krone.”

How did the attack unfold?
The attackers used fake websites to obtain work email credentials from individual employees. They then used the compromised email accounts to send additional phishing messages. “Based on current information, only individual work email accounts were affected. There is no evidence that other IT systems were compromised,” the Upper Austrian Red Cross stated in response to a query from *Krone*: “The login credentials for the compromised email accounts were leaked. Based on current information, patient data was not at risk at any time.”

Operations Were Not Disrupted
Regular operations were not disrupted, according to the Upper Austrian Red Cross. There are currently still isolated instances of delivery issues with emails sent to external companies and organizations. Intensive efforts are underway to fully resolve the issue.