Virtual Event: Threat Detection and Incident Response Summit - Watch Sessions
Connect with us

Hi, what are you looking for?

SecurityWeekSecurityWeek

Cyberwarfare

German Political Parties Hit by Cyber Attacks

German political parties have fallen victim to a new round of cyber attacks, documents showed Wednesday, after Berlin’s domestic spy agency accused Russia of a series of operations aimed at spying and sabotage.

German political parties have fallen victim to a new round of cyber attacks, documents showed Wednesday, after Berlin’s domestic spy agency accused Russia of a series of operations aimed at spying and sabotage.

Politicians and employees of several parties received emails purporting to be sent from NATO headquarters, but which instead contained a link that installed spyware on the recipient’s computer, the Sueddeutsche Zeitung daily and regional broadcasters NDR and WDR reported.

Citing unnamed security experts, German media said the attacks on August 15 and 24 appeared to have been carried out by state-backed Russian hackers.

A document circulated by Germany’s Federal Office for Information Security (BSI), seen by AFP on Wednesday, warned lawmakers of the attacks. 

“Given the background of the American situation, it is important to me to protect the parties from spying,” Arne Schoenbohm, chief of Germany’s Federal Office for Information Security (BSI), told the Sueddeutsche. 

He was referring to a series of cyber attacks that had hit the US Democrats this year. Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign has blamed Russia for the intrusion that resulted in an embarrassing leak of emails in July.

As in the US case, the BSI fears that the hackers could leak confidential party information in a bid to influence public opinion just before Germany holds general elections next year.

Advertisement. Scroll to continue reading.

Germany’s domestic secret service in May accused Russia of a series of international cyber attacks aimed at spying and sabotage, including a case which targeted the German lower house of parliament last year.

That rogue operation hitting the Bundestag involved an aggressive attack called Sofacy or APT 28 that had also struck NATO members and knocked French TV station TV5Monde off air.

Unlike last year’s attack, this summer’s affected not only specific parliamentary groups, but wider party operations such as the regional network of the Christian Democratic Union in the western state of Saarland, or the federal offices of the Left party.

Written By

AFP 2023

Click to comment

Daily Briefing Newsletter

Subscribe to the SecurityWeek Email Briefing to stay informed on the latest threats, trends, and technology, along with insightful columns from industry experts.

SecurityWeek’s Threat Detection and Incident Response Summit brings together security practitioners from around the world to share war stories on breaches, APT attacks and threat intelligence.

Register

Securityweek’s CISO Forum will address issues and challenges that are top of mind for today’s security leaders and what the future looks like as chief defenders of the enterprise.

Register

Expert Insights

Related Content

Cyberwarfare

WASHINGTON - Cyberattacks are the most serious threat facing the United States, even more so than terrorism, according to American defense experts. Almost half...

Cyberwarfare

Websites of German airports, administration bodies and banks were hit by DDoS attacks attributed to Russian hacker group Killnet

Cyberwarfare

The war in Ukraine is the first major conflagration between two technologically advanced powers in the age of cyber. It prompts us to question...

Application Security

Fortinet on Monday issued an emergency patch to cover a severe vulnerability in its FortiOS SSL-VPN product, warning that hackers have already exploited the...

Cyberwarfare

Iranian APT Moses Staff is leaking data stolen from Saudi Arabia government ministries under the recently created Abraham's Ax persona

Application Security

Virtualization technology giant VMware on Tuesday shipped urgent updates to fix a trio of security problems in multiple software products, including a virtual machine...

Cyberwarfare

Russia-linked cyberespionage group APT29 has been observed using embassy-themed lures and the GraphicalNeutrino malware in recent attacks.

Cyberwarfare

ENISA and CERT-EU warn of Chinese threat actors targeting businesses and government organizations in the European Union.