HACKERS THREATEN GERMAN POLITICS
After hackers infiltrated the German Parliament’s computer network in May 2015, it took nearly a year before the country’s intelligence agency concluded that the attack was most likely the work of their Russian counterparts. Two weeks ago, when 900,000 Germans lost access to internet and telephone services, it took a matter of hours before politicians began pointing fingers at Moscow.
Berlin is now concerned that Germany will become the next focus of Moscow’s campaign to destabilise Western democracies as national elections approach next year.
Those fears intensified after the Obama administration accused the Russian government of attacking Democratic Party emails during the US presidential campaign.
The increasing dissemination of false news, disinformation and propaganda during the US campaign and before Italy’s referendum last weekend has added a related layer of worry about the potential to corrupt public debate and democratic processes.
Hans-Georg Maassen, the head of Germany’s domestic intelligence agency, warned in an interview on Thursday of “growing evidence for attempts to influence the federal election next year.”
If the advent of the personal computer helped undermine a closed Soviet system that could not compete in an information age, then exploiting the vulnerabilities of the internet may be Russia’s revenge.
Intelligence and other officials can now point to a growing string of campaigns of disinformation, hacked computer networks and leaked emails fitting a pattern that traces a murky route back to Moscow.
The aim, they say, is to undercut liberal opponents of Moscow, destabilise political systems and undermine democratic processes across the European Union and in NATO member countries, while supporting anti-European forces.
“Based on the prevailing Russian strategy of hybrid influence and destabilisation, which we have observed over time and for which we have facts, the government, officials and some political parties have become sensitised to this form of conflict,” said Wilfried Jilge, an expert on Ukraine and Eastern Europe with the German Council on Foreign Relations.
Many of the efforts seem intended to tilt elections in a direction preferred by Moscow or to undercut certain leaders.
That was presumably the motivation for hacking the Democratic National Committee and leaking emails that embarrassed Hillary Clinton, who long had an antagonistic relationship with the Russian president, Vladimir Putin.
False news, also linked to Russia, was widely disseminated in Italy by opponents of the push by Prime Minister Matteo Renzi for constitutional changes. Many of those opponents are much closer to Moscow than to Mr Renzi, who lost and has now resigned.
Germans have not been immune to such disinformation, either.
In January, a news article that said a 13-year-old Russian-German girl had been kidnapped and raped by migrants in Germany spread quickly on Russian-language news channels.
Outrage over a supposed cover-up of the abuse drew members of Germany’s Russian-speaking minority into the streets across the country, shocking German politicians.
German police officials later proved that the events never took place.
As for Moscow’s motivations in Germany, Eberhard Schneider, a professor of political science at the University of Siegen, has observed Russia’s propaganda tactics since the days of the Cold War.
Ms Merkel, he noted, was one of the strongest supporters of the sanctions against Russia for its annexation of Crimea and the war in eastern Ukraine. Mr Putin has a strong incentive to undermine her.
The disruption at Deutsche Telekom, which began on Nov 27, set off a fresh round of alarm over potential Russian meddling and the vulnerability of Germany’s computer networks, which could be disrupted or hacked during an election.
Investigations into the incident later blamed links to “criminal organisations,” though neither Deutsche Telekom nor the government disclosed any concrete link to Moscow.
Asked about the Deutsche Telekom disruption, Ms Merkel said she did not know who was responsible.
“I will simply say, such cyber attacks, or hybrid conflicts as they are known in Russian doctrine, are now part of daily life, and we must learn to cope with them. We must inform people a lot on this point,” the chancellor told reporters last week.