Russia will face consequences for the cyberattack, suspected to be orchestrated by a group linked to Russian military intelligence, said Germany’s Foreign Minister, Annalena Baerbock.
Germany is among Western states providing military assistance to Ukraine in its conflict with Russia.
Last December, Russian President Vladimir Putin said relations between Russia and Germany were largely frozen.
In January 2023, Berlin stated that Russian hackers had targeted several German websites, taking them offline, in response to Germany’s decision to send tanks to Ukraine. However, German authorities at the time said the attack had no significant impact.
“Now we can clearly attribute last year’s attack to the Russian group, APT28, controlled by the Russian military intelligence service, GRU,” Baerbock said during a press conference in Adelaide on May 3.
“In other words, Russian state hackers have attacked Germany in cyberspace,” added Baerbock.
Germany’s top diplomat deemed such an attack unacceptable and said it “will not go unpunished.”
In March, Germany’s cybersecurity agency and researchers working for Alphabet’s Google said a similar group, called APT29, had been caught targeting several German political parties, aiming to steal their data.
