Stuttgart: Russians hacked our opera house

Stuttgart: Russians hacked our opera house

News

norman lebrecht

October 31, 2021

Federal and state police in Baden-Württemberg have identified a suspect in a 2019 blackmail hack attack on the Stuttgart State Opera.

The attack shut down the house’s IT infrastructure until a ransom of 15,000 Euros was paid to unlock the encryption. The suspect is a member of several identified Russian malware groups that are tolerated or fostered by the Putin government.

It may be no more than coincidence that Stuttgart has been a persistent supporter of the theatre director Kirill Serebrennikov, who remains under house arrest in Russia.

 

Comments

  • A.L. says:

    Stuttgart’s new production of Bertolt Brecht and Paul Dessau’s rarely performed opera, “The Condemnation of Lucullus”, premieres tomorrow, 1 November. Perhaps they should rename it “The Condemnation of Putin”.

    https://www.staatsoper-stuttgart.de/spielplan/a-z/die-verurteilung-des-lukullus/

    With Gerhard Siegel as Lucullus and Cheryl Studer as Tertullia, among a large cast.

  • JS says:

    Kirill Serebrennikov doesn’t remain under house arrest. He was freed from it in April 2019. He can’t leave Russia because he has to pay back a large sum of money (the money allegedly embezzled), that’s all. And he was never a “dissident”, he never fought against the government – if he did, he wouldn’t have made any career. And he worked for television, theater, cinema – all state-owned. He’s an “provocateur” – using vulgar language and nudity on stage. And when Russia started to promote “traditional values”, he fell out of favor. That’s all.

    • Serebrennikov is clean says:

      That’s utter crap!
      You love to make a twat of yourself in public?
      Some of us live in the Russia you are paid to corrupt.

      He didn’t embezzle a kopek, and that’s sure.
      For those who followed the Serebrennikov affair, it’s a litmus test for both crappy Putin trolls, (who like to post on here!), and those who know the truth of the story.

      If Serebrennikov was a provocateur, then try Jim Morrison.
      Now he’s known for being one of the greatest rock poets of the 60s…..WAAAAYY ahead of that boring Dylan guy who got a Nobel!

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