Russia behind major cyberattacks, says Germany

BELIN: Germany’s domestic secret service Friday accused Russia of a series of international cyberattacks aimed at spying and sabotage, in “hybrid warfare” that also targeted the German Parliament last year.
The operations cited by the BfV intelligence agency ranged from an aggressive attack called Sofacy or APT 28 that hit NATO members and knocked French TV station TV5Monde off air, to a hacking campaign called Sandstorm that brought down part of Ukraine’s power grid last year.
“Cyberspace is a place for hybrid warfare. It opens a new space of operations for espionage and sabotage,” said Hans-Georg Maassen, who heads the BfV agency.
“The campaigns being monitored by the BfV are generally about obtaining information, that is spying,” he said. “However, Russian secret services have also shown a readiness to carry out sabotage.”
Germany itself fell victim to one of these rogue operations, with the Sofacy attack last year hitting the German lower house of parliament.
That Trojan operation also affected a computer in Chancellor Angela Merkel’s legislative office, local media reported.