Alphabet Warns Russian Hacker Attack On German Political Party

Christian Democratic Union (CDU), Germany's central political party. (photo: x @CDU)

JAKARTA - Elite hackers linked to Russian intelligence last month targeted several German political parties with the aim of damaging their networks and stealing data. This was revealed, according to a warning released by Germany's cybersecurity agency and security researcher working for Google owner Alphabet.

In a report published on Friday, March 22, Alphabet's cyber Mandiant unit said it had arrested a hacker group known as APT29, suspected by Western intelligence acting on behalf of Russia's foreign spy agent, SVR, seeking to trick Germany's key political figure to open an email posing as an invitation to a dinner event on March 1 organized by Christian Democratic Union (CDU), Germany's central political party.

A warning circulated by Germany's BSI cyber agency, saying that state-backed cyber spies are targeting German political parties in an effort to build long-term access and extract data.

In a statement, the CDU said that it had long been exposed to digital attacks from domestic and foreign actors. "In this case too, we received very fast information about the attack," the statement said. No official CDU dinner on March 1, the event was fictitious.

The warning did not provide further details about who is believed to be responsible and no Mandiant or BSI provided details about who is specifically targeted. BSI did not immediately return the request for comment.

BSI said in its warning that foreign powers are very interested in spying on politicians in the context of the upcoming European elections. Mandiant said that this targeting was in line with Moscow's focus on its long-term conflict with Kyiv.

"This latest targeting is not just about attacking Germany or its politicians; it is part of Russia's broader efforts aimed at finding ways to undermine European support for Ukraine," said Dan Black of Mandiant in a statement.

Germany is among the Western countries that have provided military support for Ukraine in its war with Russia. In December, Russian President Vladimir Putin said relations between Berlin and Moscow remained largely frozen.

Der Spiegel Germany first reported on a hacking campaign that allegedly took place last Friday.