Germany's top cybersecurity authority has warned the Bundestag groups against hacker attacks. A letter speaks of a "high threat situation in the political sphere". The Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) strongly advises MEPs and their parties to secure their web servers and internal networks.
Among other things, they should set up "attack detection monitoring" and set up their IT so that sensitive areas are decoupled and thus better protected against hackers. Security experts could use so-called penetration tests to detect if and where systems have vulnerabilities.
The reason for the warning, the BSI writes, is a "targeted cyberattack on the Austrian People's Party" which became "evident in September" - a few weeks before the Nationalrat election. Who is behind the alleged attack is unclear, the Austrian Federal Criminal Police Office and the Constitutional Protection determine. The party speaks of 1.3 terabytes of data leaked.
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