Germany on Wednesday said hackers had breached its government computer network with an isolated attack that had been brought under control and which security officials were investigating.
A spokesman for the German Ministry of the Interior said the affected government agencies had taken appropriate measures to investigate and protect data.
He did not comment on German media reports that the attack was launched by Russian hacker group APT28, which had already attacked the German parliament in 2015, resulting in the loss of data from the defense and foreign ministries.
“The attack was isolated and brought under control within the federal administration,” which manages government computer networks, the spokesman said in a statement.
He said authorities were addressing the incident “with high priority and significant resources.”
The spokesman said he could give no further details immediately due to security and analysis measures that were still under way.
German opposition lawmakers demanded government officials provide a detailed account of the incident, angry that they had learned of it through the media.
Dieter Janacek, a Greens lawmaker and head of the parliamentary committee on digital affairs, told the Berliner Zeitung that the latest incident amounted to “a form of warfare against Germany” and raised serious concerns about the security of government networks.
German security sources said authorities had been aware of the incident for some time, but denied media reports that the German Ministry of Defense and the military were affected.
Both the German parliamentary committee that oversees the intelligence agencies and the digital committee scheduled extraordinary meetings yesterday to discuss the attack, parliamentary sources said.
German Minister of Defense Ursula von der Leyen declined to comment about the reports during an appearance in London.
News of the attack on German government computers came after repeated warnings by German intelligence officials about possible meddling by Russia in last year’s federal election.
The head of the German domestic intelligence agency last year said such attacks had not occurred, but the risk of interference remained until a new government is in place.
Social Democrats are voting by postal ballot on an agreement to form another “grand coalition” with German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives, with the results to be made public on Sunday.
If they reject the deal, Germany could face new elections or the formation of a minority government for the first time in its post-war history.
The Philippines yesterday said its coast guard would acquire 40 fast patrol craft from France, with plans to deploy some of them in disputed areas of the South China Sea. The deal is the “largest so far single purchase” in Manila’s ongoing effort to modernize its coast guard, with deliveries set to start in four years, Philippine Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Ronnie Gil Gavan told a news conference. He declined to provide specifications for the vessels, which Manila said would cost 25.8 billion pesos (US$440 million), to be funded by development aid from the French government. He said some of the vessels would
BEYOND WASHINGTON: Although historically the US has been the partner of choice for military exercises, Jakarta has been trying to diversify its partners, an analyst said Indonesia’s first joint military drills with Russia this week signal that new Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto would seek a bigger role for Jakarta on the world stage as part of a significant foreign policy shift, analysts said. Indonesia has long maintained a neutral foreign policy and refuses to take sides in the Russia-Ukraine conflict or US-China rivalry, but Prabowo has called for stronger ties with Moscow despite Western pressure on Jakarta. “It is part of a broader agenda to elevate ties with whomever it may be, regardless of their geopolitical bloc, as long as there is a benefit for Indonesia,” said Pieter
US ELECTION: Polls show that the result is likely to be historically tight. However, a recent Iowa poll showed Harris winning the state that Trump won in 2016 and 2020 US Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris courted voters angered by the Gaza war while former US President and Republican candidate Donald Trump doubled down on violent rhetoric with a comment about journalists being shot as the tense US election campaign entered its final hours. The Democratic vice president and the Republican former president frantically blitzed several swing states as they tried to win over the last holdouts with less than 36 hours left until polls open on election day today. Trump predicted a “landslide,” while Harris told a raucous rally in must-win Michigan that “we have momentum — it’s
CARGO PLANE VECTOR: Officials said they believe that attacks involving incendiary devices on planes was the work of Russia’s military intelligence agency the GRU Western security officials suspect Russian intelligence was behind a plot to put incendiary devices in packages on cargo planes headed to North America, including one that caught fire at a courier hub in Germany and another that ignited in a warehouse in England. Poland last month said that it had arrested four people suspected to be linked to a foreign intelligence operation that carried out sabotage and was searching for two others. Lithuania’s prosecutor general Nida Grunskiene on Tuesday said that there were an unspecified number of people detained in several countries, offering no elaboration. The events come as Western officials say