Germany is investigating a series of sophisticated computer hacking attacks on MPs and political parties amid fears Russia may be trying to influence the outcome of next year’s elections. The offices of several MPs inside Germany’s parliament were targeted in the attacks, as well as regional offices of Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU) and rival parties. The German government agency in charge of cyber security believes the attacks originated from Russia and may be linked to the hacking of private emails from Hillary Clinton’s campaign team in the US earlier this year. Senior American Democrats have accused Russia of being behind the leak of thousands of internal emails in an attempt to help Republican candidate Donald Trump win the White House.
“Given the background of the American situation, I have to protect our political parties from spying,” Arne Schönbohm, the head of Germany’s Federal Office for Information Security (BSI), told Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper. Mr Schönbohm took the highly unusual step of personally briefing MPs about the attacks earlier this month.
The new attacks come just months after Germany’s domestic intelligence service accused Russia of being behind an earlier hacking incident at the Bundetag last year.
The latest attacks took place on August 15 and 24 this year. MPs and party offices received an email which appeared to come from Nato headquarters, which contained a purported link to information on July’s failed military coup in Turkey or the recent earthquake in Italy.
Full Article: Russia blamed for hacking attack on German MPs.