 |
| A guy clutches a laptop computer as cyber code is projected on him in this illustration photo taken on May 13, 2017 |
March 22 (mod1s) - Elite hackers tied to Russian intelligence last month targeted several German political parties with an eye toward burrowing into their networks and stealing data, according to an alert released by Germany's cybersecurity agency and security researchers working for Google owner Alphabet (GOOGL.O), opens new tab.
In a report published on Friday, opens new tab, Alphabet's Mandiant cyber unit said it had caught the hacking group known as APT29, which is alleged by Western intelligence to act on behalf of Russia's SVR foreign spy agency, trying to trick "key German political figures" into opening an email masquerading as an invitation to a March 1 dinner event hosted by the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), Germany's center-right political party.
An notice disseminated by Germany's BSI cyber agency and obtained by Reuters refers to the same event, claiming that state-backed cyber spies were targeting German political parties in an attempt to gain long-term access and exfiltrate material.
In a statement, the CDU claimed it has long been susceptible to computer assaults from local and international parties.
"In this case, too, we received very prompt information about the attack," the statement added. "There was no official CDU dinner on 1 March, the event was fictitious."
The notice did not disclose any data on who was suspected to be involved and neither it nor Mandiant supplied details on who precisely was targeted. The BSI did not immediately reply a request for comment. The Russian embassy in Washington also did not immediately reply to an email asking comment.
The BSI warned in its statement that foreign countries were especially interested in spying on politicians in the context of the "upcoming European elections." Mandiant said the targeting matched in with Moscow's emphasis on its long-running confrontation with Kyiv.
"This latest targeting is not just about going after Germany or its politicians; it is part of Russia's wider effort aimed at finding ways to undermine European support for Ukraine," Mandiant's Dan Black said in a statement.
Germany is among the Western countries who have supplied military backing for Ukraine in its fight with Russia. In December, Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed ties between the Berlin and Moscow have remained mostly frozen.
Germany's Der Spiegel originally reported, opens fresh tab on the suspected hacking operations early on Friday.