Germany's Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, left, and Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong arrive for a news conference in Adelaide, Friday, May 3, 2024. 

Germany's top diplomat on Friday said Russia will face consequences after accusing its military intelligence service of masterminding an “absolutely intolerable” cyberattack, as NATO and European Union member countries said they will not let Russia’s “malicious" behavior in cyberspace go unanswered.

Relations between Russia and Germany were already tense, with Germany providing military support to Ukraine in its ongoing war with Russia.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said Russian state hackers were behind a cyberattack last year that targeted the Social Democrats, the leading party in the governing coalition. The German Interior Ministry added that German companies, including in the defense and aerospace sectors, as well as targets related to Russia’s war in Ukraine were a focus of the attacks.

“Russian state hackers attacked Germany in cyberspace,” Baerbock said at a news conference in the Australian city of Adelaide. “We can attribute this attack to the group called APT28, which is steered by the military intelligence service of Russia."

“This is absolutely intolerable and unacceptable and will have consequences,” she said.

The Council of the EU and the Czech Foreign Ministry said that Czechia's institutions have also been a target of a cyber campaign by the same group.

The ministry said APT28, which is associated with the Russian military intelligence service GRU, exploited a previously unknown vulnerability in Microsoft Outlook from 2023.

“Cyberattacks targeting political entities, state institutions and critical infrastructure are not only a threat to national security, but also disrupt the democratic processes on which our free society is based,” the ministry said. No details about the targets of these attacks were given.

In a statement by the EU’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, the bloc’s nations said they “strongly condemn the malicious cyber campaign conducted by the Russia-controlled Advanced Persistent Threat Actor 28 (APT28) against Germany and Czechia.”

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Germany's Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, center, poses with Lewis O'Brien, the oldest living Kaurna man, and Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong, left, in Adelaide, Friday, May 3, 2024, during a ceremony to mark the return of four significant cultural heritage items to the Kaurna people from the collection of the Grassi Museum in Leipzig.

The EU noted that it had previously imposed sanctions on individuals and entities responsible for APT28 attacks targeting the German parliament in 2015. It said it will not tolerate the continuation of such attacks, particularly with EU elections upcoming in June.

NATO said that APT28 targeted “other national governmental entities, critical infrastructure operators and other entities across the Alliance," including in Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia and Sweden.

“We are determined to employ the necessary capabilities in order to deter, defend against and counter the full spectrum of cyberthreats to support each other, including by considering coordinated responses,” said the North Atlantic Council, the principal political decision-making body within NATO.

Baerbock is visiting Australia, New Zealand and Fiji, with the trip focusing on security policy as China pushes for influence in the Pacific region.

“The defense cooperation between Germany and Australia is close and we would like to deepen it further and together expand it, because we are in a situation where we face similar threats,” said Baerbock, who is the first German foreign minister to visit Australia in 13 years.

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Discussions between Baerbock and Australia counterpart Penny Wong centered on the conflict in Gaza. “I think we all understand that the only path out of this cycle of violence that we see in the Middle East at such great cost is one that ultimately ensures a two-state solution,” Wong said.

Germany, Czech Republic accuse Russia of cyberattacks

The hacking attack has been blamed on a previously unknown vulnerability in Microsoft Outlook 

Germany and the Czech Republic on Friday blamed Russia for a series of recent cyberattacks, prompting the European Union to warn that Moscow would face consequences for its "malicious behaviour in cyberspace".

The accusations come at a time of strained relations between Russia and the West following Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine and the European Union's support for Kyiv.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said a newly concluded government investigation had concluded that a 2023 cyberattack targeting members of the Social Democratic Party had been carried out by a group known as APT28.

APT28 "is steered by the military intelligence service of Russia", Baerbock told reporters during a visit to Australia.

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"In other words, it was a state-sponsored Russian cyberattack on Germany and this is absolutely intolerable and unacceptable and will have consequences."

Berlin later summoned the acting charge d'affaires of the Russian embassy over the incident.

APT28, also known as Fancy Bear, has been accused of dozens of cyberattacks in countries around the world.

Russia denies being behind such actions.

The hacking attack on German Chancellor Olaf Scholz's SPD party was made public last year. It has been blamed on a previously unknown vulnerability in Microsoft Outlook.

- Arms, aerospace targetted: Berlin -

German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said the cyber campaign was orchestrated by Russia's military intelligence service GRU and began in 2022.

It also targeted German companies in the armaments and aerospace sectors, she said.

Such cyberattacks are "a threat to our democracy, national security and our free societies", she said at a joint news conference in Prague with her Czech counterpart Vit Rakusan.

"We are calling on Russia again to stop these activities," Faeser added.

Czech government officials said some state institutions had also been the target of cyberattacks blamed on APT28, again by exploiting a weakness in Microsoft Outlook.

Czech Interior Minister Rakusan said his country's infrastructure had recently experienced "higher dozens" of such attacks.

"The Czech Republic is a target. In the long term, it has been perceived by the Russian Federation as an enemy state," he told reporters.

- EU, NATO condemnation -

The German and Czech findings triggered strong condemnation from the European Union.

"The malicious cyber campaign shows Russia's continuous pattern of irresponsible behaviour in cyberspace, by targeting democratic institutions, government entities and critical infrastructure providers across the European Union and beyond," EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell said in a statement.

The EU would "make use of the full spectrum of measures to prevent, deter and respond to Russia's malicious behaviour in cyberspace", he added.

State institutions, agencies and entities in other member states including in Poland, Lithuania, Slovakia and Sweden had also been targeted by APT28 in the past, the statement added.

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The accusations come a day after NATO expressed "deep concern" over Russia's "hybrid actions" including disinformation, sabotage and cyber interference.

The row comes as millions of Europeans prepare to go to the polls for the European Parliament elections in June.

Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky told AFP that "pointing a finger publicly at a specific attacker is an important tool to protect national interests".

One of the most high-profile incidents so far blamed on Fancy Bear was a cyberattack in 2015 that paralysed the computer network of the German lower house of parliament, the Bundestag.

It forced the entire institution offline for days while it was fixed.

Germany summons Russian diplomat over cyberattack on ruling party

Acting chargé d'affaires of the Russian embassy Alexey Korliakov goes to the Federal Foreign Office after being summoned. Germany has summoned the acting chargé d'affaires of the Russian embassy in response to a Russian cyberattack on the governing Social Democratic Party (SPD) last year, a Foreign Office spokesman says. 

Germany has summoned the acting chargé d'affaires of the Russian embassy in response to a Russian cyberattack on the governing Social Democratic Party (SPD) last year.

He has been summoned for noon, a spokesman for the German Foreign Ministry announced in Berlin on Friday.

Earlier, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said Berlin blames a unit of the Russian military intelligence service GRU for a 2023 cyberattack on the centre-left SPD, which is in coalition with the Greens and pro-business Free Democrats (FDP).

"Russian state hackers attacked Germany in cyberspace," Baerbock said in Adelaide during a visit to Australia, adding there would be consequences.

In June 2023 the SPD said that email accounts belonging to its executive had been the target of a cyberattack earlier that year.

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According to the SPD, this was made possible by a security vulnerability in software which was not known at the time of the attack. "It cannot be ruled out that data was leaked from individual email inboxes," an SPD statement said.