Czech Republic says has been targeted by Russian cyberattacks

Czech government officials said Friday that Prague had been repeatedly targeted by cyberattacks orchestrated by a group with links to Russia’s military intelligence service, the GRU.

Citing “the mode of operation and the focus of these attacks”, the foreign ministry blamed the Russian group APT28, also known as Fancy Bear, for the attacks.

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“Some Czech institutions have… been the target of cyberattacks exploiting a previously unknown vulnerability in Microsoft Outlook from 2023,” said a ministry statement.

In Berlin, German officials said on Friday that the same group of hackers had also carried out a cyberattack on members of the Social Democratic Party in 2023.

Czech Interior Minister Vit Rakusan said his country’s infrastructure had recently experienced “higher dozens” of such attacks.

“The attacks were orchestrated by the Russian Federation and its military intelligence service GRU,” Rakusan told reporters at a news conference with his German counterpart Nancy Faeser.

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

Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky told AFP: “Pointing a finger publicly at a specific attacker is an important tool to protect national interests.”

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The Czech Republic, an EU and NATO member of 10.9 million people, has provided Ukraine with substantial military and humanitarian aid since the Russian invasion started in February 2022.

Earlier this week, Czech police said they had shelved a case of two blasts at an eastern Czech ammunition depot from 2014, blaming the GRU for orchestrating them.

They said the Russian side had refused to cooperate on the investigation into the explosions that had killed two local workers.

A Czech intelligence report on the blast led to a wave of diplomatic expulsions on both sides in 2021.

In March, Czech intelligence said it had busted a Moscow-financed network that spread Russian propaganda and wielded influence across Europe, including inside the European Parliament, ahead of the June EU elections.

The group used the Prague-based Voice of Europe news site to spread information seeking to discourage the European Union from sending aid to Ukraine.

© Agence France-Presse