Russia prime suspect in German parliament cyber breach

Russia is being accused of hacking into the German parliament and making away with some of its data in a state-sponsored attack on the EU nation.

According to The Register, citing the German publication Der Spiegel, sources inside the Bundestag’s IT department have confirmed that the tell-tale signs of a state-sanctioned action are there. Russia is the prime suspect, thanks to analysis of the source code for one of the pieces of malware used in the attack, found to be very similar to a previous Russian hack.

The security breach was discovered when infected computers tried to make contact with an Eastern European server to relay some data. While that move was quickly stopped, the security experts realized that other data had been passed to such servers. All 20,000 accounts in the Bundestag are now considered to be vulnerable, or to have already been breached.

This isn’t the first time that Russia has launched such attacks, nor will it probably be the last considering the country’s bellicose attitude.

Source: The Register, Deutsche Welle