Germany has expressed its displeasure with Russia for attempting to steal data from legislators in what, it believes, is an effort to disseminate misinformation ahead of the forthcoming German election, according to the Foreign Ministry in Berlin.
Germany's Foreign Minister Spokeswoman Reported Attempts of Cyberattacks
In a recently published article in The Hill, a hacking group known as Ghostwriter has been combining traditional cyberattacks with misinformation and influence operations, according to Foreign Ministry spokesperson Andrea Sasse. Actions targeting Germany have been detected for some time.
Andrea Sasse said that, in the run-up to Germany's parliamentary election on Sept. 26, phishing emails were used to get personal login information of federal and state legislators, among other things, in order to commit identity theft that could affect the election results.
Germany will elect a new parliament on Sept. 26 that will decide Merkel's successor. After almost 16 years in office, she has resolved not to seek re-election. The election is wide open, with surveys indicating the major parties to be quite well-matched, according to a report published in MSN News.
Sasse Released a Statement About the Alleged Cyberattack
Andrea Sasse told the reporters that these cyberattacks may be used as a warm-up for influence operations including misinformation campaigns tied to the legislative election on Sept. 26, according to a recently published article in Associated Press.
She also explained that the German government has credible evidence linking Ghostwriter's operations to Russian state cyber-actors, particularly Russia's GRU military intelligence agency. It sees this inappropriate behavior as a threat to the Federal Republic of Germany's security and democratic decision-making processes, as well as a serious strain on bilateral ties.
Germany Calls Russian Government To Immediately Stop the Activity
She claimed that Germany demands that the Russian government cease such activity immediately and that it has made that demand directly to Russian officials, most recently during a meeting of a German-Russian working group on security policy on Thursday and Friday, during which German deputy foreign minister Miguel Berger raised the issue with Russia's deputy foreign minister.
Meanwhile, Sasse refused to comment on the scope of the cyberattacks or the potential harm, stating only that they are "absolutely unacceptable" and that the German government retains the right to take further steps, according to a report published in DW.
When Was the Alleged Cyberattack Detected?
The director of Germany's domestic intelligence agency stated in mid-July that his agency has observed phishing attempts on the private email accounts of federal and state politicians and their employees since February. However, he said that only a small percentage of those efforts were successful and that in the instances when little harm seemed to have been done.
Germany's worries about Russian meddling have spread to the operations of state-funded broadcaster RT, whose online-only German-language program has long highlighted contentious topics like migration and the limitations imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Needless to say, Chancellor Angela Merkel recently disputed that her government used political pressure to obstruct the station's bid for a regular broadcast license, which was rejected by officials in neighboring Luxembourg last month.
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