The spokeswoman for the Federal Foreign Ministry announced that the German ambassador in Moscow had been summoned to Berlin for urgent consultations. As she said: “This is standard procedure.” This is linked to last year’s cyberattack on German government agencies, including the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), which Russia is accused of committing.
According to information reported by German media, the ambassador will remain in Berlin for a week. He is scheduled to return later to Russia. A spokeswoman for the German Foreign Ministry said: “The federal government takes this event very seriously as an attack on our liberal democracy, as well as the institutions that support it.”
Hacker group controlled by Russian intelligence
The German government blames the attack on the hacker group APT28, controlled by Russian military intelligence GRU. She allegedly exploited a Microsoft Outlook vulnerability at SPD headquarters from at least March 2022, primarily to hack email accounts. The attacks were also intended to target government agencies and companies operating in the logistics, defence, aviation and IT sectors.
APT28 has been known for its cyber espionage activities around the world since at least 2004. In the past, the group has been blamed for a major cyberattack on the Bundestag in 2015, as well as an attack on the Democratic Party in the United States before the presidential election. The victims of the 2016 presidential election were also supposed to include government institutions, agencies and bodies in Poland, Sweden, Lithuania and Slovakia.
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