Germany Fears Election Issues After Cyberattack

After nearly 1 million German ISP Deutsche Telekom customers were knocked offline due to infected routers, the country’s government is concerned about the vulnerability of Germany’s computer network.

Last week, a newly discovered vulnerability in the firmware of the devices was believed to be the entry point for the new version of the Mirai botnet, which then turned off the remote upgrade feature and complicated restoration efforts.

“Security experts say the multi-day outage is a sign of things to come as cybercriminals continue to aggressively scour the Internet of Things (IoT) for vulnerable and poorly secured routers, internet-connected cameras and digital video recorders (DVRs),” Brian Krebs reported.

“Once enslaved, the IoT devices can be used and rented out for a variety of purposes — from conducting massive denial-of-service attacks capable of knocking large websites offline to helping cybercriminals stay anonymous online,” he added.

Since the recent botnet attack, the German Parliament has pointed the finger at Moscow and fears that Germany will be become the latest target in Russia’s ongoing campaign to destabilize Western democracies, The New York Times reported.

With Germany’s national elections right around the corner, government officials are concerned it may experience similar attacks to what happened when the Democratic Party emails were compromised during the American presidential campaign.

“Based on the prevailing Russian strategy of hybrid influence and destabilization, which we have observed over time and for which we have facts, the government, officials and some political parties have become sensitized to this form of conflict,” Wilfried Jilge, an expert on Ukraine and Eastern Europe with the German Council on Foreign Relations, told NYT.

“Such suspicions are the result of observation and experience over the past year and a half,” Jilge added.