Russian hackers targeting German politicians report DW 03222024

pThe US security firm Mandiant which is a subsidiary of Google owner Alphabet says hackers under Russias FSI spy agency tried to trick German politicians into opening a link to a fake dinner eventppRussian hackers have targeted several German political parties to steal data German news magazine Der Spiegel reported on FridayppThe magazine cited an analysis from the US security firm Mandiant which is subsidiary of Google owner Alphabet as well as an alert by German security authoritiesppMandiant said that the APT29 hacking group which is also known as Cozy Bear tried to trick key German political figures into opening an email that contained a fake invitation to a dinner event hosted by the opposition conservative Christian Democratic Union CDU partyppMandiant analysts said that the group used a new kind of malware known as Wineloader to carry out the attacksppThe group has carried out several attacks on Western authorities according to Der Spiegel In January it managed to break into the email accounts of top Microsoft employeesppInternational spy authorities believe that the group works under orders from the Foreign Intelligence Service FSI Russias external intelligence agencyppAn alert from Germanys Federal Office for Information Security BSI said that cyber spies were attempting to build longterm access and extract data from German political partiesppThe CDU said that this was not the first time it had been the target of digital attacksppIn this case too we received very prompt information about the attack the party said in a statementppThere was no official CDU dinner on 1 March the event was fictitiousppThe BSI said that foreign powers were particularly interested in extracting information from politicians in the context of upcoming European elections which are due to be held in early JuneppMandiant analyst Dan Black said that Moscow was working to undermine European support for UkraineppThis latest targeting is not just about going after Germany or its politicians it is part of Russias wider effort aimed at finding ways to undermine European support for Ukraine Black said in a statementppGermany has increasingly been the target of Russian spying efforts over its support for Kyiv as Ukraine fights off Russias invasionppOn Tuesday a German soldier was charged with allegedly handing over secrets obtained in the course of his work to Russian intelligenceppEarlier this month Russian media published a wiretapped conversation in which Bundeswehr officers were heard discussing arms deliveries to Ukraineppsdiwd AFP ReutersppWhile youre here Every Tuesday DW editors round up what is happening in German politics and society You can sign up here for the weekly email newsletter Berlin Briefingpp p