Germany says Russia behind massive cyberattack last year after Berlin decided to send Ukraine tanks

Germany concluded a probe into Russia's 2023 cyberattack, with the German FM stating it "was a state-sponsored Russian cyber-attack on Germany" and this "will have consequences.”

May 4, 2024 - 07:39

Germany says Russia behind massive cyberattack last year after Berlin decided to send Ukraine tanks

Baerbock

Germany says it has evidence that Russian state-sponsored hackers orchestrated an “intolerable” cyber-attack last year, which disrupted several websites of Germany’s ruling coalition member party, following Berlin’s decision to send tanks to Ukraine.

At a news conference during a visit to Australia, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock announced that a federal government investigation into the 2023 cyber-attack on the Social Democrat party (SPD), Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s party, has concluded, The Guardian reports.

“Today we can say unambiguously [that] we can attribute this cyber-attack to a group called APT28, which is steered by the military intelligence service of Russia,” Baerbock said. “In other words, it was a state-sponsored Russian cyber-attack on Germany, and this is absolutely intolerable and unacceptable and will have consequences.”

APT28, also known as Fancy Bear or Pawn Storm, is implicated in numerous global cyber-attacks.

Baerbock provided no further specifics on the cyber-attack against the SPD. CERT-EU reported a cyber-attack targeting an SPD executive in January 2023, reportedly of Russian origin, with potential data exposure. Also, Russian hackers disrupted several German websites in response to Berlin’s tank deployment to Ukraine, albeit with minimal impact.

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