After the announcement that Germany was supplying tanks to Ukraine, Russian hackers launched new attacks.
German ministries and the foreign minister are presumably affected.
Update from January 26, 7:45 p.m
.: Hackers from the “Killnet” group who are loyal to Putin have apparently tried to attack the websites of various German authorities and companies with cyber attacks.
The Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) announced on Thursday that they were aware of "currently ongoing DDoS attacks against targets in Germany," said a spokesman for the agency when asked by AFP
The BSI also stated that the current cyber attacks and hacker attacks would focus in particular on airport websites and "individual targets in the financial sector" as well as websites of the federal and state administrations, according to the BSI.
Hacker attacks on German authorities and companies - cyber attacks by the Putin-loyal group Killnet on Annalena Baerbock
The attacks were announced by the Russian hacker group Killnet, the spokesman for the authorities said.
The hackers had previously stated on Telegram under the hashtag #GermanyRIP (English for: Germany, rest in peace) that they wanted to retaliate with their attacks for Germany's announced delivery of Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine.
There, the group presented the websites of the Federal Intelligence Service and the website of Annalena Baerbock as the declared targets of the hacker attacks on Germany.
Killnet is a group of hacktivists loyal to Putin who have tried in the past to paralyze German government websites with their cyber attacks.
Cyber attack on Germany: Hackers attack the Ministry of the Interior in Baden-Württemberg
The BSI spokesman said that it was "particularly difficult to determine who exactly was behind the current attacks with hacker collectives".
"They call for action, and then a lot of people take part." The attacks on the websites of federal and state administrations have so far been largely repelled and have had no serious effects, according to the BSI.
The Ministry of the Interior in Baden-Württemberg also stated that "DDoS attacks were taking place nationwide on various German websites and institutions" since Wednesday evening.
This included the areas of infrastructure and administration, as well as the website of the Baden-Württemberg police force.
Hacker attacks by a group loyal to Putin: Cyber attacks largely averted
"The installed security measures have taken effect, and as a precautionary measure, the server was shut down on the advice of IT security at around 7:30 p.m. to avoid possible damage," the ministry released further information about the suspected hacker attacks by the group loyal to Putin.
"Since then, the website polizei-bw.de has been temporarily unavailable." The Baden-Württemberg State Criminal Police Office initiated the investigation into the possible crimes in close consultation with the departments concerned.
Hacker attacks by Killnet: Putin-loyal group admits to cyber attacks on Baerbock and German authorities
Update from January 25, 10:34 p.m
.: According to information from the Süddeutsche Zeitung, the federal government’s side was also temporarily affected by an attack on Wednesday.
The Killnet group claimed responsibility for the attacks.
She has links to a group called Xaknet, which has hacked into the computers of several Ukrainian organizations.
In the course of the evening, most of the pages were accessible again.
Cyber attacks run as DDoS attacks
Update from January 25, 9:35 p.m
.: According to information from the
editorial network Germany
, the attacks are so-called DDoS attacks.
In Distributed Denial of Service attacks, individual websites are called up so often by a large number of coordinated systems that the page can no longer cope with the calls.
It is then "out of order", but internal systems usually remain unaffected, data is not tapped.
(Source: Federal Office for Information Security).
Annalena Baerbock's website is also not available late on Wednesday evening.
BSI speaks of "currently ongoing cyber attacks against targets in Germany"
Update from January 25, 9:22 p.m
.: "The Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) is aware of ongoing cyber attacks against targets in Germany," said a spokeswoman for the cyber security authority of the editorial network Germany (RND).
"There are currently no indications of direct effects on the respective service and, according to the BSI, are not to be expected if the usual protective measures are taken." Attacks against the federal administration could have been averted.
Alleged hacker attack: Website of Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens) not available
Update from January 25, 8:46 p.m
.: Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock’s website is also unavailable on Wednesday evening.
According to information from the editorial network Germany, this could be related to the call by suspected Russian hackers for cyber attacks on German government websites.
In addition, the website of the Franziskus Hospital in Berlin is said to have been unavailable on Wednesday evening.
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The website of Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens) cannot be reached on Wednesday evening.
© Screenshot/Website Annalena Baerbock (Greens)
Alleged Russian hacker group calls for cyber attack against Germany
First report from January 25, 2023, 7:34 p.m
.:
Moscow/ Berlin - "The apocalypse is getting closer," pro-Russian hackers wrote in a Telegram channel after Germany received a delivery of Leopard tanks to Ukraine in the wake of the Russian war of aggression.
As the Handelsblatt reports, the group is calling for a “comprehensive cyber attack on Germany”, and other groups should take part.
The group has published a list of possible attack targets under the hashtag #DeutschlandRIP, including the websites of government agencies and ministries.
Among the hackers is said to be the Killnet group.
It was also announced on Wednesday that experts believe that Germany is currently not well positioned to prosecute criminal hackers.
However, without effective law enforcement, cybersecurity could not be improved.
That's what Stefanie Frey from Deutor Cyber Security Solutions said on Wednesday at a hearing in the Digital Committee of the Bundestag.
Anyone who has ever visited the cybercrime department of a state criminal investigation office knows that this is not an attractive job for the specialists who are urgently needed to solve such crimes.
The salaries are also too low.
Cyber security in Germany must be reorganized
Misbah Khan, Green Party domestic policy maker, said: "Our aim is to re-order the cybersecurity architecture.
At the moment there are too many structures and actors that work past one another.” The Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) is predestined to – as suggested by Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) – take on the previously missing function as a central office.
In order to increase trust in and credibility of the BSI, it must also become more independent.
As the IT magazine COOS reports, new trends in hacker attacks have been observed since the start of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine: On the one hand, the pro-Russian hacker groups are becoming better networked.
On the other hand, sympathizers are specifically recruited - among other things, with the promise of being able to avoid being drafted into the Russian military by working together.
Pro-Russian hacker groups more active since Ukraine war - currently Deutsche Bank affected?
The websites of individual airports were not accessible on Wednesday afternoon.
According to the Handelsblatt, the Federal Government, the Federal Ministry of Finance and the financial supervisory authority Bafin, but also the Deutsche Bank and the Bundesbank, the police, the airports in the country and the Society for International Cooperation (GIZ) are among the targets of the hackers from Russia.
In the afternoon, a website assigned to Deutsche Bank was temporarily unavailable, as was the website of the Federal Criminal Police Office.
According to the Handelsblatt, however, it was unclear in all cases whether the threats from pro-Russian hacker groups were related to the problems in accessing the websites.
The Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) has therefore confirmed that there are currently targets against Germany.
However, the situation is under control.
Kremlin spokesman Dimitri Peskov denied Russia's involvement in hacker groups like Killnet on Wednesday.
Sven Herpig, head of cybersecurity policy and resilience at the Stiftung Neue responsibility (SNV), told the Handelsblatt that threats should be expected after a tank delivery: "But I wouldn't see this operation as an escalation now."