Germany has temporarily recalled its ambassador to Russia due to a cyber attack

Germany has temporarily recalled its envoy to Russia due to a cyber attack

A recently completed government investigation found that a group called APT28 carried out a cyber attack against members of Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democratic Party (SPD), Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said last week.

The group is controlled by Russian military intelligence, meaning it was a “Russian state-sponsored cyber attack against Germany,” Baerbock added. Russia dismissed the accusations as “groundless”.

Envoy Alexander Graf Lambsdorff “has been recalled for consultations and will spend a week in Berlin, after which he will return to Moscow,” a ministry spokeswoman said at a press conference in Berlin.

The German government takes the cyberattack “very seriously” and considers it an attack “against our free democracy,” it said.

APT28, also known as Fancy Bear, is accused of carrying out dozens of cyber attacks in various countries around the world.

The hacker attack on SPD was announced last year. According to Berlin, hackers used a previously unknown vulnerability in Microsoft Outlook to hack into emails. mail accounts.

Berlin last week summoned the chargé d’affaires of the Russian embassy to explain the incident.

Last week, the Czech Republic also announced that in 2023 several of its public institutions have also suffered from cyber-attacks, also carried out using a vulnerability in Microsoft Outlook. APT28 is also blamed for these attacks.

As a result of these attacks on two European Union members, the bloc of countries warned Moscow of the consequences of its “malign behavior in cyberspace”.