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Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser warns of increasing danger from Russian hacker attacks (archive image)
Photo: Metodi Popov / IMAGO
Kremlin chief Putin is also conducting his war of aggression with massive cyber attacks: Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) has therefore again warned of the high risk of Russian disinformation, espionage and sabotage.
»The cyber security situation has worsened further as a result of the war.
Attacks by pro-Russian hackers have increased," Faeser told the newspapers of the Funke media group in an interview published on Sunday.
The danger from state-controlled espionage and sabotage activities also remains high.
The federal and state governments would have to fight off cyber threats together and "continuously develop their skills," said Faeser.
She emphasized: »We are in a race with ever new attack methods and technologies.
Federal Office for Information Security is to be expanded
That is why we are creating new instruments that the security authorities can use to stop cyber attacks and investigate them better.« The Interior Minister cited the expansion of the Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) as an example.
Since Germany began supporting Ukraine with arms deliveries and sanctions against Russia, cyber attacks, for example against energy suppliers or military facilities, have been considered a major threat to Germany in security circles.
The Russian secret services had the ability to attack not only critical infrastructure but also political operations.
The goal: sensitive data
Shortly after the beginning of the war, there was a wave of attacks in Germany by the »Ghostwriter« hacker campaign, which was presumably controlled by Russian services.
According to the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, "ghostwriters" had "successfully captured data from elected officials and other political targets" in the past.
These could possibly be made public via so-called hack-and-leak operations and misused for disinformation campaigns.
flg/AFP
