Germany vows action as Russian hackers target SPD, Baerbock reveals

The head of German diplomacy, Annalena Baerbock, announced on Friday that the Russian military intelligence was responsible for the cyberattack on the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) management last year. She declared that this action would not remain unchecked.

The SPD, Chancellor Olaf Scholz's party, is part of Germany's ruling coalition along with the FDP and the Greens. In June 2023, it reported that its party management's email accounts had been compromised in a cyberattack that occurred in January of the same year.

The breach, as reported at the time, was made possible by a security flaw, the origins of which have yet to be identified.

Baerbock revealed that the investigation into this attack carried out under the Foreign Ministry's supervision, has been concluded.

"We can now clearly attribute last year's attack to the Russian group APT28, which is controlled by the Russian military intelligence service GRU," Annalena Baerbock stated during her speech in Adelaide, Australia, on Friday.

"Russian state hackers have attacked Germany in cyberspace," the head of German diplomacy declared.

Baerbock expressed her indignation over such actions, stressing that "this is completely unacceptable and will not remain without consequences."