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Russian hackers targeted multiple political parties in Germany and stole data from German news magazine der spiegel It was reported on Friday.
The magazine cited an analysis by Mandiant, a U.S. security company owned by Google, and a warning from German security officials.
What is the nature of the cyber attack?
Mandiant said the hacker group APT29, also known as Cozy Bear, tricked “major German politicians” into attending a dinner party hosted by the conservative opposition Christian Democratic Union (CDU). He said he tried to get him to open an email containing an invitation. ) party.
Analysts at Mandiant said the group used a new type of malware known as Wineloader to carry out the attack.
The group reportedly carried out several attacks against Western authorities. der spiegel. In January, it successfully compromised the email accounts of Microsoft executives.
International spy authorities believe the group operates on orders from Russia’s foreign intelligence agency, the Foreign Intelligence Service (FSI).
A warning from Germany’s Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) said cyber spies were trying to gain long-term access and exfiltrate data from political parties in Germany.
The CDU said this is not the first time it has been the target of a digital attack.
“Once again, we received information about the attack very quickly,” the party said in a statement.
“There was no CDU official dinner on March 1st and this event was fictitious.”
Why did Russian hackers target German political parties?
BSI said foreign powers were particularly interested in extracting information from politicians in relation to the European elections scheduled to take place in early June.
Mandiant analyst Dan Black said the Russian government is trying to undermine European support for Ukraine.
“This latest targeting is part of a broader Russian effort aimed not only at Germany and its politicians, but also at finding ways to undermine European support for Ukraine,” Black said in a statement. ” he said.
As Ukraine repulses Russian aggression, Germany has increasingly become a target of Russian espionage over its support for Kiev.
A German soldier was indicted on Tuesday on suspicion of handing over secrets obtained in the course of his work to Russian intelligence.
Earlier this month, Russian media published wiretapped conversations in which Bundeswehr officers were heard discussing arms deliveries to Ukraine.
sdi/wd (AFP, Reuters)
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