Tag Archive for: Germany

BYOD and Mobile Security Management



Alert! Don’t use Kaspersky anti-virus, says Germany, warns of hacking


German cyber security agency BSI on Tuesday urged consumers not to use anti-virus software made by Russia’s Kaspersky, warning the firm could be implicated in hacking assaults amid Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Russia’s military and intelligence activities in Ukraine, and its threats to EU and NATO allies, particularly Germany, mean there is “a considerable risk of a successful IT attack”, the Federal Cyber Security Authority (BSI) said in a statement.

“A Russian IT manufacturer can itself carry out offensive operations, can be forced to attack target systems against its will, or be itself spied on as a victim of a cyber operation without its knowledge, or be misused as a tool for attacks against its own customers,” the agency warned.

Companies and operators of critical infrastructure are particularly vulnerable but individuals could also be hit, the BSI said, inviting anyone in doubt to contact it for advice.

The United States banned government agencies from using Kaspersky software as early as 2017.

Kaspersky has always rejected accusations that it works with the Kremlin. But its business wsa badly hit by the US ban, which came into effect at a time when the company’s software was installed on hundreds of millions of computers worldwide.

Military and cyber specialists fear that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine could lead to an outbreak of cyberattacks — a “cyber Armageddon” which would have major consequences for civilians in both countries and also globally, through a spillover effect.

But a worst-case scenario has so far been avoided, as the attacks observed appear to be contained in their impact and geographical scope.

Germany has in recent years repeatedly accused Russia of cyber espionage attempts.

The most high-profile incident blamed on Russian hackers to date was a cyberattack in 2015 that paralysed the computer network of the lower house of parliament, the Bundestag, forcing the entire institution offline for days while it was fixed.

Russia denies being behind such activities.

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Istanbul with 16 million inhabitants has chosen KOBIL from Germany for the digital transformation |


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Germany Investigates Russia Over Pre-Election Hacking


BERLIN — The federal prosecutor’s office in Germany said Friday it was investigating who was responsible for a spate of hacking attempts aimed at lawmakers, amid growing concerns that Russia is trying to disrupt the Sept. 26 vote for a new government.

The move by the prosecutor’s office comes after Germany’s Foreign Ministry said this week that it had protested to Russia, complaining that several state lawmakers and members of the federal Parliament had been targeted by phishing emails and other attempts to obtain passwords and other personal information.

Those accusations prompted the federal prosecutor to open a preliminary investigation against what was described as a “foreign power.” The prosecutors did not identify the country, but they did cite the Foreign Ministry statement, leaving little doubt that their efforts were concentrated on Russia.

In their statement, the prosecutors said they had opened an investigation “in connection with the so-called Ghostwriter campaign,” a reference to a hacking campaign that German intelligence says can be attributed to the Russian state and specifically to the Russian military intelligence service known as the G.R.U.

Russia was found to have hacked into the German Parliament’s computer systems in 2015 and three years later, it breached the German government’s main data network. Chancellor Angela Merkel protested over both attacks, but her government struggled to find an appropriate response, and the matter of Russian hacking is now especially sensitive, coming in the weeks before Germans go to the polls to select a successor after her nearly 16 years in power.

Moscow denied that it was involved in the hacking efforts.

“Despite our repeated appeals through diplomatic channels, our partners in Germany have not provided any evidence of Russia’s involvement in these attacks,” the Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, said at a briefing on Thursday.

She called the German allegations “an extraordinary P.R. story,” and said the suspicions appeared to be the work of “individual politicians” intent on showing they would “not allow gaps in trans-Atlantic solidarity,” in an apparent reference to…

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