In January 2023, hackers from the Russian-controlled hacking collective Fancy Bear (also known as APT28) hacked the email accounts of the party leadership of the SPD, the party of Chancellor Olaf Scholz. This has been ‘undeniably’ established after extensive German research, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said on Friday during a working visit to Australia. “Russian state hackers attacked Germany in the digital world.”
It is yet another proof that Russia uses cyber attacks for political purposes in the West.
About the author
Iva Venneman is foreign editor of de Volkskrant. She writes about Germany and Belgium, among other things.
Fancy Bear is notorious for this. In 2016, the hacker group penetrated the networks of the American Democratic Party, in the run-up to the presidential elections between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.
The group also tried to gain access to the systems of the Dutch Safety Board when it investigated the downing of flight MH17.
Sanctions still unknown
Germany had previously suffered from Russian-driven hackers. In 2015, Fancy Bear was behind the large-scale hack of the German parliament.
Now that Russia is once again held responsible for an attack by Berlin, the German government announces sanctions. It is still unclear what these are. But according to Minister Baerbock, this Russian cyber attack ‘cannot remain without consequences’.
Last year’s hack did not only affect the SPD. The attack was part of a series of cyber attacks carried out by Fancy Bear in Europe, the German investigation said. In other cases, the hackers targeted government services and companies involved in energy supply, ICT, armaments and aerospace.
NATO expresses ‘deep concern’
NATO warned on Thursday about Russia’s increasing ‘hostile’ activities in Europe. In a statement, the military alliance expressed its “deep concern” about the spread of disinformation, espionage and electronic and digital interference by Russia. The Czech Republic, Estonia, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Great Britain have recently become victims of this, according to NATO.
It was already clear that the Russian secret service has recently targeted Germany. Last month, two men were arrested in Bavaria on suspicion of espionage. The two are said to have prepared attacks on military bases in Germany on behalf of the Russian secret service in order to thwart Western military support to Ukraine.
It is unknown what information Fancy Bear captured during the hack of the SPD. “It cannot be ruled out that data has been collected from individual mailboxes,” the SPD party chairman said last year when announcing the hack.
The German minister did not release any new information on Friday about the extent of the hack.
