Foreign hackers broke into the Czech Foreign Ministry email

A nation state actor could be behind the security breach suffered by the Czech Foreign Ministry, experts are investigating the case.

On Tuesday the Czech Foreign Minister Lubomir Zaoralek announced that threat actors have breached dozens of email accounts at the Czech Foreign Ministry. Zaoralek added that the cyber-attacks were likely conducted by a foreign state, but he did not blame any states for the attack.

The list of the compromised accounts includes the Zaoralek’s one.

The Czech Foreign Minister confirmed that hackers did not penetrate the ministry’s internal communication system and no confidential material was compromised, even if attackers have stolen a huge quantity of data.

“When I discussed this with the best experts that we have here, they told me that the character of the attack was such that the attack was very sophisticated, that it must have been, according to them, conducted by some foreign state, from the outside,” Zaoralek told a news conference who was also reported by the Reuters Agency.

“They also told me that the way the attack was done very much resembles the character of attacks against the system of the Democratic Party in the United States.”

A government source told Reuters that Czech authorities suspect the attacks originated from Russia. The Czech experts discovered the security breach early January and are currently investigating whether other key government institutions have also been targeted by the same group.

The Czech Republic is one of the NATO alliance, according to the Reuters in October Czech authorities arrested Russian citizen Yevgeniy Nikulin, who has been indicted in the United State for computer hacking. Both U.S. and Russia requested his extradition.

It is alert on cyber espionage in Europe, recently Franche Defense Minister Le Drian comments expressed concerns about cyber attacks against defense systems and warns of hacking campaigns on the upcoming elections.

Stay Tuned!

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Pierluigi Paganini

(Security Affairs – Czech Foreign Ministry, cyber espionage)