The big question in Germany at the moment is who was behind a “spear phishing” scheme against German politicians and institutions between August 14 and 25. The attack reportedly has the hallmarks of Russian intelligence. The German government, however, has remained quiet on the matter.
Meanwhile, the Agence France-Presse (AFP) has revealed that politicians and individuals connected with parties from the conservative CSU to the Left Party received emails purportedly from Nato that contained a Trojan virus – to be activated if they responded.
Germany’s domestic intelligence agency, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, informed the Left Party that the attack was likely connected to “foreign intelligence services,” AFP reported, and Left Party chairman Bernd Reixinger has called upon the government to get to the bottom of the affair immediately.
According to Deutsche Welle (DW), Germany’s international broadcaster, even though the attack was reportedly carried out by a hacker group associated with Russian intelligence services, an interior ministry spokesman refused to be drawn out.
“I personally know the group from various reports, but not specifically in conjunction with this matter,” Johannes Dimroth told a press conference on September 21. He refused to comment further on several questions about possible Russian involvement, citing the ongoing nature of the investigation.
Internet security expert Konstantin von Notz from the opposition Green Party, however, was willing to go somewhat further. In an interview with DW, he said: “We certainly think the Russians are capable of this. But it’s always difficult with hacker attacks to say definitively where they originate. Part of the attack is to conceal where it’s coming from.”
Speaking to the online edition of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper, British security studies professor Thomas Rid said that the German attacks were related to the hacking of Democratic National Committee emails earlier this year in the United States. Rid said that there was “forensic” evidence linking those two incidents and the cyberattack on the German Bundestag last year with Russian intelligence services.
In a separate report, the Telegraph noted that the sophistication and capacity of Russian cyber-warfare operations have been revolutionised in recent years by a decision to co-opt the country’s impressive IT industry, said Andrei Soldatov, author of The Red Web and the foremost expert in Russian cyber espionage.