Germany accuses Russia of cyberattacks
Germany supports the conclusions reached by British and Dutch intelligence that Russia is responsible for a series of cyberattacks against international organizations and institutions, German government spokesman Steffen Seibert reported on Friday.
According to him, Berlin “has complete faith” in the results of the investigation carried out by the Netherlands and UK, which shows that Russia’s Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU) is behind the hacks.
The day before, Dutch Defense Minister Ank Bijleveld announced that the Netherlands was expelling four Russians who had been caught with hacking equipment in a hotel across from the office of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW). The incident took place in April, when the OPCW was investigating the assassination attempt on Russian double-agent Sergei Skripal.
At the same time, the US accused seven presumed GRU agents of carrying out cyberattacks on targets including nuclear power plants. Four of the suspects had already been expelled from the Netherlands, and another three had already been blamed for attacks on the Democratic Party in the US.
The British National Cyber Security Center said that the GRU is “almost definitely” involved in the hacking activity of APT 28, Sofacy, Sednit, Sandworm, Cyber Caliphate, Cyber Berkut and a number of other groups.
“We strongly condemn such attacks on international organizations, and call on Russia to admit responsibility and to stop such activity,” Seibert said on Friday.
Seibert said that the German government “believes, with likelihood bordering on certainty, that the GRU is behind the APT28 hacker group”.