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German Foreign Office invites Russian envoy over 2015 Bundestag cyberattack

The attack on the Bundestag networks began on April 30, 2015 with a wave of emails that contained malware
Germany’s Federal Foreign Office wikimedia.org/Magnus Back
Germany’s Federal Foreign Office
© wikimedia.org/Magnus Back

BERLIN, May 28. /TASS/. German Federal Foreign Office invited Russian Ambassador Sergey Nechayev for a conversation regarding the 2015 hacker attack on the Bundestag, which Germany attributes to Russia, and which Moscow denied repeatedly, the Foreign Office announced Thursday.

"State Secretary of the Federal Foreign Office Miguel Berger invited Sergey J. Nechajev, the Ambassador of the Russian Federation, to the Federal Foreign Office for talks today. On behalf of the Federal Government, Mr Berger condemned the hacker attack on the German Bundestag in the strongest possible terms," the message reads.

The cyberattack against the Bundestag’s networks began on April 30, 2015. Many lawmakers received identical emails, sent from purported UN addresses. The emails contained a hyperlink, which, upon clicking, downloaded malware to the system. In a bid to stop the malware’s spread, German cybersecurity had to temporarily shut off the entire Bundestag’s IT infrastructure. During the cyberattack, over 16 gigabytes of data were stolen, including the legislators’ emails.

Russia repeatedly denied any involvement in the hacker attacks. No German agency has ever provided any proof for the media allegations of the cyber criminals’ ties with Moscow.