Minister: Russia hacked Danish defence for two years

Posted by DanielS on Monday, 24 April 2017 17:46.

Claus Hjort Frederiksen [Council]
Euractiv, “Minister: Russia hacked Danish defence for two years”, 23 April 2017:

Russia has hacked the Danish Defence Ministry and gained access to employees’ emails in 2015 and 2016, NATO member Denmark’s defence minister told newspaper Berlingske on Sunday (23 April).

The report comes at a time when several Western governments, including the United States, France and Britain, have accused Russia of hacking in order to influence elections — allegations Moscow has repeatedly dismissed as baseless.

A report from the Danish Defence Intelligence Service’s unit for cyber security said “a foreign player” had spied against Danish authorities and gained access to non-classified documents.

It did not name the country behind the espionage, but Foreign Minister Claus Hjort Frederiksen told Berlingske it was Russia.

“It is linked to the intelligence services or central elements in the Russian government, and it is a constant battle to keep them away,” Frederiksen told the newspaper.

A spokeswoman from the Danish Defence Ministry confirmed that the minister had been quoted correctly but said he would give no further comments for the time being.

Spokespeople at the Kremlin were not available to comment on Sunday.

Frederiksen told Berlingske the hacking had been possible due to insufficient security around emails with non-classified material, something that has since been improved.

The group behind the attack went under the name APT28 or Fancy Bear and was one of two groups which allegedly gained illegal access to US Democrats’ emails last year, according to Berlingske.

Frederiksen said in January that Denmark plans to increase military spending in response to Russian missile deployments in the Baltic region that it perceives as a threat.

Polish Minister of National Defence Antoni Macierewicz told EURACTIV.com last June that Russia had conducted a cyber-attack against the Polish ministry of defence and stole the telephone numbers of 10,000 Polish soldiers.

Polish defence minister: ‘Helpless requests’ don’t work with Russia

“Bon voyage” to Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker in Russia. He should know that Moscow only understands equal partnerships from a position of strength, Polish Minister of National Defence Antoni Macierewicz told EURACTIV.com in an exclusive interview.

Montenegro has reportedly been hit by cyber-attacks on the day of its last elections – 16 October 2016.

Montenegro hit by cyber-attacks on election day

The Ministry for Information Society and Telecommunications of Montenegro has announced that several important websites were targeted by cyber-attacks on Sunday (16 October), the day of the country’s parliamentary elections.

Hans-Georg Maassen, head of Germany’s domestic intelligence agency BfV, recently said that his services are seeing increased cyber spying and cyber operations that could potentially endanger German government officials, members of parliament and employees of democratic parties.

German spy agency warns of rise in Russian propaganda and cyber-attacks

Germany’s domestic intelligence agency yesterday (8 December) reported a striking increase in Russian propaganda and disinformation campaigns aimed at destabilising German society, and targeted cyber-attacks against political parties.

Tags: European Nationalism, Russian Politics

Comments:

Posted by Russian"Pawn Storm" phises Macron campaign on Tue, 25 Apr 2017 14:29 | #

Washington Post, “Cyberattack on French presidential front-runner bears Russian ‘fingerprints,’ research group says”, 25 April 2017:

PARIS — A security firm claimed Tuesday that a new cyberattack against the campaign offices of the front-runner in France’s presidential race carried similar digital “fingerprints” to the suspected Russian hacking of the Democratic National Committee and others.

The report, released by the Trend Micro research group, did not disclose what possible fallout the infiltration had on the campaign of Emmanuel Macron, a centrist who is in a two-person runoff with far-right rival Marine Le Pen in the May 7 election.

But if a Russian connection was proved, the hacking would add to mounting allegations of Moscow-backed attempts to influence Western elections in favor of candidates with policies potentially more favorable to the Kremlin. Le Pen has voiced opposition to the powers of the European Union and has called for better ties with Russia, echoing some of the campaign rhetoric of President Trump.

Tokyo-based Trend Micro said Macron’s campaign was targeted in March and April by a cyberspy group called “Pawn Storm.” It is the same group that has allegedly used phishing and malware to infiltrate other political organizations, such as Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union party in Germany and the Democratic National Committee.

“There are several things which suggest that the group behind the Macron hacking was also responsible for the DNC breach, for example. We found similarities in the IP addresses and malware used in the attacks,” said Rik Ferguson, the vice president of the company’s security research program.

“We cannot say for sure whether this was directed by the Russian government but the group behind the attacks certainly appears to pursue Russian interests,” added Ferguson, speaking from the company’s London offices.

According to the research firm, the hackers created several email addresses on a fake server with the URL onedrive-en-marche.fr, operating from computers with IP addresses in multiple European nations including Britain.

The phishing attacks discovered by the Trend Micro research group appear to be distinct from hacking allegations the Macron campaign itself made in February.

At the time, the campaign’s secretary general, Richard Ferrand, said its websites and networks were under constant attacks from hackers believed to be located in Russia and accused the Russian government of trying to influence the election.

[...]

some cyberespionage experts have previously linked the “Pawn Storm” group to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s intelligence services.

Le Pen has taken loans from Russian banks and has repeatedly praised Putin. Russian state media have returned the favor by openly supporting the French candidate.

[...]

“There is a crisis of confidence in France,” said Cécile Vaissié, a Russia expert at Rennes 2 University in northern France. “The Kremlin networks try to accentuate the doubts and divisions, and to propose the ‘Russian model’ as a solution. And these efforts will not end with the elections.”

Posted by Kumiko Oumae on Tue, 25 Apr 2017 18:02 | #

They were not successful at actually extracting any information in France from the Macron campaign, as far as I’m aware. It seems that Macron’s people are actually running a sensibly tight ship over there.

Trend Micro has a brief summary on Pawn Storm for those unfamiliar with it.