Germany has accused Russia of attempting to influence the country’s upcoming general elections through cyber campaigns. The German Foreign Ministry stated that it had gathered intelligence that pointed towards interference by hackers working for Russia’s GRU military intelligence service. According to the ministry, the hackers attempted to steal the login details of both federal and state lawmakers. German intelligence concluded that this was likely for the purpose of misleading German voters by distributing fake messages from politicians’ accounts ahead of the federal election, which is set to be held on September 26.

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Andrea Sasse stated that the incident was part of a larger cyberespionage campaign perpetrated by Russia. Sasse stated that the operation had been ongoing for an extended period of time, indicating that German intelligence attributed the incidents to the espionage group Ghostwriter. Ghostwriter primarily targets organizations in Lithuania, Latvia, and Poland, however. Russia has been repeatedly accused of interfering in election campaigns throughout the world over the past several years, including in the US and the UK.

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