The German government accuses Russian intelligence services of a hacking attack on Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democratic Party (SPD) last year. Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock announced this on Friday. In a press release, Germany specifically points to the hacker group ‘Fancy Bear’.
In December 2022, the hacker collective, which is part of the Russian military intelligence service GRU, exploited a vulnerability in the security of Microsoft Outlook. That makes it possible to leak the user’s access data. If the user then uses an easy password, hackers can gain access to their mailbox. Whether this also happened here has not been announced for the time being.
The attack was not only aimed at the Social Democratic Party. German companies active in logistics, defense, aerospace and computer science were also affected, as were companies and organizations active abroad. This concerns state institutions and companies that maintain critical infrastructure, such as energy supplies. The link with the war in Ukraine is of course quickly made.
Not without consequences
“Russian cyber attacks pose a threat to our democracy, which we are resolutely combating. We act side by side within the EU, NATO and with our international partners. We will not be intimidated. We will continue to massively support Ukraine, which is defending itself against Putin’s murderous war,” Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said in the press release.
“This is completely unacceptable and will not remain without consequences,” Baerbock also warned on Friday. A spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that the Russian ambassador had been summoned.
The Czech Republic also sent a statement to the world to confirm the German claims. Czech intelligence services also spotted hacking attempts targeting their institutions at the same time. “Russia has long been trying to undermine the Czech Republic’s democracy and security in many ways,” said Jan Lipavský, the Czech Foreign Minister. He refers, among other things, to Voice of Europe, the Russian propaganda platform that was recently exposed. “Publicly pointing the finger at the perpetrator is an important means of protecting national interests.”
Germany also clearly points out that perpetrator: Fancy Bear. This is an elite unit within the Russian military intelligence service GRU, known under numerous names, such as APT28, Tsar Team, Strontium or Forest Blizzard, and internally as GRU Unit 26165. The unit’s main purpose is to attack foreign powers (enemy states). specifically) to hack. In the past it has carried out attacks on the German and Norwegian parliaments, the White House and NATO.
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