According to Nancy Faeser, the Ukrainian conflict has worsened Germany’s cybersecurity worries
Germany’s Interior Minister has issued a warning of a significant threat posed by Russian espionage, disinformation, and sabotage attacks. According to Nancy Faeser, Vladimir Putin is allocating substantial resources to cyber attacks as a crucial element of his aggressive campaign. “The cybersecurity concerns have intensified due to the war. The frequency of pro-Russian hackers’ attacks has risen,” she stated in an interview with the news organization Funke Mediengruppe that was published on Sunday.
Faeser emphasized that the risk of government-backed espionage and sabotage activities remained extremely elevated. She urged both federal and regional authorities to collaborate in repelling cyber attacks and to consistently improve their capacity to do so. “We are in a race against constantly evolving methods of attack and technologies,” she stated.
Faeser announced that the Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) was being expanded by the government and mentioned the development of new tools for security agencies to prevent and resolve cyber-attacks. The escalation of cyber-attacks against energy providers and military organizations in Germany, following the country’s support of Ukraine with weapon deliveries and sanctions against Russia, has raised concerns among security experts. They have warned of the potential harm to critical infrastructure and political institutions such as the Bundestag, which pose significant threats to domestic security.
In May 2015, Germany experienced one of its largest cyber-attacks, which targeted the country’s parliament. The attack involved hacking into the internal computer system, stealing data, and causing MPs’ offices to go offline. The perpetrator is believed to be Russia’s military intelligence agency, the GRU.
Fast forward to 2020, Angela Merkel, who was the Chancellor of Germany at the time, reported that her office had been hacked. She disclosed that emails from her constituency office had been obtained, which she described as a distressing and unacceptable attack.
According to digital experts, Germany is constantly under attack from hackers, resulting in a state of perpetual vulnerability. The hackers target a range of institutions, including financial organizations, arms manufacturers, energy providers, humanitarian groups, and tax authorities. Despite the sophisticated disguise of these attacks, cybercrime investigators frequently discover that they originate from Russian hackers.
According to Alexander Vukcevic, the director of protection labs at the IT security company Avira, whenever Europe increases sanctions against Russia or accelerates its aid to Ukraine, there is a corresponding increase in hacker attacks.
In a similar incident, when the Bundestag voted in favor of tank deliveries, hackers attempted to breach the parliament’s network, but their efforts were ultimately unsuccessful. During the Munich Security Conference, which focused heavily on the Russian invasion of Ukraine, hackers attacked Nato’s IT systems. Vukcevic also cited an example where Bulgarian government computers were targeted by hackers from a group known as Killnet after Bulgaria publicly pledged its support to Ukraine.
