Germany's Dresden State Art Collections (Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, or SKD) experienced a cyberattack on Jan. 21, according to a statement from The Saxon State Minister for Culture and Tourism. SKD is among the oldest museum networks in Europe and contains 15 museums. "Large parts" of the organization's digital infrastructure were impacted, as per the ministry's statement. However, its security system was not affected and remains fully functional, including physical and technical security.
Before the Second World War, Dresden was commonly regarded as Germany's most beautiful city, marked by Baroque silhouettes and filled with cherished collections of the fine and applied arts. Then came the Allied air raids of February 1945, and Dresden underwent what could be described as a horrific rebrand-becoming Germany's most decimated metropolis. Decades of rebuilding later, however, it is once again what Germans call a Kunststadt -a city of art.
The man in question had already been detained once before and was released soon after the incident, with no initial indication of him being directly involved in injuring a young American. But investigators said new information might implicate him more directly. Police said in a press release that after further investigation there was now reasonable grounds to suspect that he was "involved in the knife attack against the 20-year-old American and also himself injured the victim with a dangerous object."