Chancellor Merkel’s PC was the first one infected in the Bundestag hack

Experts say the cyber attack on the German Bundestag alleged began with the compromise of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s personal computer.

I have written many posts regarding a recent attack against the German Bundestag with caused a major data breach.

We discussed the possibility that the cyber attack against the German Parliament was coordinated by Russian state-sponsored hackers that spread a highly sophisticated malware inside the network of the Bundestag.

The consequence of the data breach could be serious for the German Government, German media states that Bundestag may need to replace 20,000 computers after the intrusion, an operation that could cost millions Euro.

New revelations in the investigation confirms that the cyber attack on the German Bundestag began with the compromise of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s personal computer.

According to the German news agency, the Bild, the Merkel’s computer was one of the first systems to be infected with the malware used by the hackers.

The attackers used the Merkel’s PC to target other members of the Parliament by sending malicious messages, at the time I’m writing there is no news regarding the way the attackers succeeded to breach the Merkel systems.

Despite the evidence suggests that Russia hackers were involved in the attack, the experts highlighted that the attribution in these cases is very difficult. Many other governments could be interested in the hacking of systems at the German Bundestag, earlier 2015 document disclosed by Snowden revealed that the NSA has tapped the mobile phone of the German chancellor to gather national secrets.

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Pierluigi Paganini

(Security Affairs –  State Sponsored hacking, Bundestag)

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