Illegal activities have been reported. - CDU Suffers Cyber Attack; Office for the Protection of the Constitution Intervenes
One week prior to the European elections, the CDU has suffered a severe cyber-attack, as reported by government insiders. This incident is being viewed with considerable concern. The Interior Ministry verified the occurrence of a significant cyber-attack on the CDU's network. Details about the scale of the damage or the attacker are currently unknown, owing to ongoing investigations. "The nature of the attack indicates a highly skilled hacker," remarked a representative.
It is yet undetermined if any sensitive data was compromised. A CDU representative remarked, "In light of the situation, the IT infrastructure was disconnected and quarantined as a precaution." The CDU's website cdu.de remains operational.
Connections with the Interior Ministry and Other Security Agencies
Authorities have revealed that Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) had already communicated with CDU President Friedrich Merz. The CDU is now in close collaboration with German security agencies and external cybersecurity specialists. The Office for the Protection of the Constitution and the Federal Office for Information Security are conducting investigations.
The Interior Ministry's spokesperson stated that the Office for the Protection of the Constitution would issue a warning to all parties in the German Bundestag on Saturday. "Our security organizations have raised all defense measures against digital and hybrid threats and are evaluating the potential risks. This highlights the necessity of such measures, particularly before elections."
Previous Hacking Incident Affected the SPD
The SPD endured a cyber-attack in 2022. On this occasion, email accounts at party headquarters were infiltrated. The German government attributed the incident to a unit of the Russian military intelligence service. The Foreign Office summoned a prominent Russian diplomat in early May 2022 and ordered the German ambassador to Moscow, Alexander Graf Lambsdorff, back to Berlin for consultations, which lasted for a week.
The SPD was not the only party to experience this attack. German corporations in the logistics, defense, aviation, and space, and IT services industries were also targeted. The party asserts that this attack was achieved through an unidentified security loophole at the software company Microsoft.
