Security News > 2021 > September > EU: Russia Behind ‘Ghostwriter’ Campaign Targeting Germany

In the wake of cyberattacks targeting the recently held German elections, the European Union has blamed Russia for an ongoing disinformation campaign called "Ghostwriter." Germany is the latest target in an effort that for years has tried to discredit NATO, and which has both smeared and cyberattacked Parliament members, other politicians and government officials, and journalists.

It's not the first time the campaign has been attributed to Russia, but on Friday, the EU Council made the link official.

"These malicious cyber-activities are targeting numerous members of Parliaments, government officials, politicians, and members of the press and civil society in the EU by accessing computer systems and personal accounts and stealing data."

Rather, the Ghostwriter threat actors went a step beyond, compromising news website content management systems and spoofing email accounts to spread cooked-up content, including fake correspondence from military officials and bogus quotes from political figures.

Earlier this month, German Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Andrea Sasse said that Ghostwriter has targeted the German parliament at least three times this year, "Combining conventional cyberattacks with disinformation and influence operations." Sasse added that activities targeting Germany have been observed "For some time."

The EU Council concluded its release by saying that it's going to revisit the Ghostwriter issue in future meetings and may consider taking further steps against Russia.

News URL

https://threatpost.com/eu-russia-ghostwriter-germany/175025/