‘Sensitive’ data hacked

BERLIN: The latest hack of German government networks involved complex malicious software and targeted more sensitive data than a 2015 breach of the German parliament, a leading member of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives said yesterday.

Patrick Sensburg, a member of the parliamentary committee that oversees German intelligence agencies, told broadcaster ZDF it would take time to analyse the incident that the German government on Wednesday said had been “isolated” and contained.

He said it was premature to link the cyber attack – as German media reports have done – to a Russian hacking group known as APT28, although he said there was sufficient evidence that the group had links to a Russian spy agency.

“One has to carefully examine a software (case) like this one that is extremely complex,” Sensburg told the broadcaster.

Germany on Wednesday said security officials were investigating an isolated attack on its government computer networks, but the incident had been brought under control. It did not confirm that the foreign and defence ministries were affected by the attack.

Sensburg said there had been rumours about a possible breach of government networks, but his high-level committee had not been informed about the attack by government officials.

“We have a sort of war going on in the internet,” Sensburg said, adding that it remained unclear whether any data was stolen as a result of the breach, and if so, what sort of data. – Reuters