Phishing e-mails have allowed hackers to access the computers of at least seven members of the Bundestag and 31 regional legislators, the newspaper reports. The mirror.
A Bundestag spokesman confirmed that a cyber-attack had taken place, but said that there was currently no direct attack on the Bundestag’s information technology infrastructure.
Security experts believe that the Russian military intelligence service GRU is behind these attacks, reports The mirror, noting that it is not yet clear whether hackers have gained access to any sensitive information.
Most of the politicians affected by the cyber attack are from the ruling coalition parties in Germany – the Christian Democrats (CDU), their Bavarian sister party Christian Social Union (CSU) and the Social Democrats (SPD), reports “Der Spiegel”.
The mirror points out that a number of political activists have also been affected by cyber attacks.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said last year that she had concrete evidence that Russia had committed cyber-attacks against her.
The best-known incident is a hacker attack in 2015, when the Bundestag’s computer network was completely paralyzed, preventing the entire parliament from operating on the Internet for several days.
Last month, the German prosecutor’s office charged with espionage a German citizen suspected of handing over a floor plan to a Russian secret service in 2017.
German Foreign Minister Heiko Sister said last week that Germany was likely to be the target of a Russian disinformation campaign ahead of the September Bundestag elections. The nurse stressed that this was completely unacceptable.
Russia has denied any involvement in such activities.
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