Germany admits Russian hackers infiltrated foreign, defense ministries

CAIRO – 1 March 2018: The German government admitted on Wednesday that the Foreign and Defense ministries had been infiltrated by Russian hacking group APT28, DW reported.

Citing anonymous sources, the German news agency dpa reported the group likely placed a piece of malware on a key government network. The malware could have remained the government's networks for as long as a year, security officials said.

The German Interior Ministry confirmed the breach. "We can confirm that the Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) and intelligence services are investigating a cybersecurity incident concerning the federal government's information technology and networks," an Interior Ministry spokesman said.

The targeted ministries had since taken necessary measures to investigate the attack and protect their data, the spokesman added.

How much data was intercepted in that time remains unclear.

The government said it receives roughly 20 attempted hacking attacks per day, while German intelligence services also carry out penetration tests once per week.