Germany accuses Russia of 2024 cyber-attack and disinformation

BBC:

Germany has accused Russia of a cyber-attack on air traffic control and attempted electoral interference, and summoned the Russian ambassador.

A foreign ministry spokesman said Russian military intelligence was behind a “cyber-attack against German air traffic control in August 2024”.

The spokesman also accused Russia of seeking to influence and destabilise the country’s federal election in February this year.

He said that Germany, in close co-ordination with its European partners, would respond with counter-measures to make Russia “pay a price for its hybrid actions”.

There was no immediate response from Russia.

The spokesman said the August 2024 cyber-attack could be attributed to the Fancy Bear Russian hacker group.

“Our intelligence findings prove that the Russian military intelligence service GRU bears responsibility for this attack,” he added.

The ministry went in to say it was now certain that Moscow had attempted to “influence and destabilise both the last federal election and the ongoing internal affairs of the Federal Republic of Germany” through a disinformation campaign called Storm 1516.

The campaign, it said, had focused in part on lead Green Party candidate Robert Habeck and lead CDU candidate Friedrich Merz, who is now chancellor.

The German government said security agencies had identified fake videos alleging ballot manipulation as part of a Russian disinformation effort just days before the election.

Fancy Bear is said to have previously leaked World Anti-Doping Agency data, and played a key role in the 2016 cyber-attack on the US Democratic National Committee, according to security experts.

The latest accusations come amid heightened concerns in Europe over suspected Russian cyber-attacks since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

While it is yet to respond to the latest allegations, Moscow has previously denied European allegations of a Russian sabotage or hybrid campaign.