The State Department blamed the attacks on the Russian group APT28, also known as Fancy Bear.
“Some Czech institutions […] since 2023 has been the target of cyber attacks that used a previously unknown vulnerability in Microsoft Outlook,” the ministry said in a statement.
Earlier on Friday, German officials announced that APT28 had carried out a cyber attack against members of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) last year.
“The Czech Republic is a target”
According to Czech Interior Minister Vito Rakusan, the country’s infrastructure has recently suffered dozens of such attacks.
“The attacks were organized by the Russian Federation and its military intelligence service GRU,” the minister said during a press conference with his German counterpart Nancy Faeser.
“The Czech Republic is a target. For a long time, the Russian Federation considers it a hostile state,” added V. Rakusanas.
The European Union on Friday condemned a “malicious cyber campaign” against Germany and the Czech Republic blamed on Russia and warned it would use a full range of measures in response.
The bloc attributed the cyberattacks to APT28 after Germany issued a public assessment. APT28 has previously targeted other EU countries, including Poland, Lithuania, Slovakia and Sweden, according to a community statement.
Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky told the AFP news agency: “Publicly pointing the finger at a specific attacker is an important means of protecting national interests.
After Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine more than two years ago, the Czech Republic provided significant military and humanitarian aid to Kyiv.
Earlier this week, Czech police announced they had postponed the trial of two explosions at an ammunition depot in the eastern Czech Republic in 2014. Prague accuses the GRU of complicity in the incident.
The Czech Republic says Russia has refused to cooperate with the investigation into the incident that killed two workers.
In 2021, both countries launched a wave of diplomatic expulsions after Czech intelligence reports of the explosion emerged.
In March, Czech intelligence announced it had uncovered a Moscow-funded network that spread Russian propaganda and influenced Europe, including the European Parliament, which is due to be elected on June 6-9.
The group used the Prague-based news site Voice of Europe to spread information aimed at dissuading the EU from sending aid to Ukraine.
