Cybersecurity: KaDeWe was the victim of a cyberattack

The iconic Kaufhaus des Westens (KaDeWe) is not doing well at the moment. This is not only because the department store, which opened in 1907, is currently fearing for its existence. On top of that, a cyberattack in November 2023 could now have serious consequences.

KaDeWe in decline

As if it wasn’t enough that the glamorous Kaufhaus des Westens in the center of Berlin only recently made the insolvency of the KaDeWe Group public, there has now been a real bombshell for customers of the historic shopping mile. In November 2023, there was a cyberattack on the department store, the extent of which is only now becoming apparent. Criminals are said to have not only accessed the data of 857 employees of the department store during their attack. The data of 4,300 customers is also said to have been stolen. This has now been made public by a spokesperson for the Berlin Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information.

The authority is referring to a document prepared by the KaDeWe Group as part of the investigation into the incident. At the request of Golem.de, the spokesperson’s figures are only an estimate, but it can probably be assumed that we are roughly in this order of magnitude. However, he does have something reassuring to announce. No payment data had leaked out. A report in the Handelsblatt underlines the fact that the authorities are relying on sound information here. Here, KaDeWe admitted that it had sought support from data protection experts and had followed their instructions.

• More on the topic: Cybersecurity: hacker group Lockbit has apparently been disbanded

But not a repelled attack

The whole thing takes on an even more bitter taste when you look at the company’s behavior shortly after the attack. After the cyber attack occurred in the night of November 2 to November 3, there was initially talk that it had been successfully fended off. As it now turns out, this was apparently not the case.