Russia also regularly uses hackers for espionage. According to a report, they attacked the German power grid in the summer of 2017. Because one of the servers used is in Germany, one of the hackers can be identified.
Russian hackers are said to have attacked the German power grid during a spy campaign. A suspected perpetrator has been identified, the Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR) and the WDR report together. An arrest warrant has been issued for the man.
Accordingly, in the summer of 2017, the Russian hacked the network of the company Netcom BW, which belongs to the energy company EnBW. As a result, it was possible to access the Internet traffic, the report says. The electricity and gas network control was not affected, BR and WDR quote an EnBW representative.
According to the US Department of Justice, the man is said to be part of a hacker group working for the Russian secret service FSB. These are also targeting other energy companies. It is unclear how many company networks the group was able to penetrate. The authorities succeeded in monitoring the hackers’ Internet traffic, at least in part, because one of the servers used is in Germany.
The Russian hackers are also said to have hacked and slightly modified strategically important websites in order to steal confidential information such as login data. Among other things, a company that develops websites for energy suppliers is affected.
Just a few weeks ago, Norway reported a Russian hacker attack. The Norwegian security authority NSM announced that numerous private and state institutions had become the target of the attack. “A criminal, pro-Russian group seems to be behind the attacks.”
Just the day before, Lithuania had also reported a cyber attack on state and private companies. The Defense Ministry said the action was in retaliation for the dispute with Lithuania over the transit ban for certain goods to the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad. “Lithuanian state institutions and companies face severe DDoS attacks.”