German foreign minister says Russia will face consequences for monthslong cyber espionage WPXI [Video]

BRUSSELS — (AP) — Germany on Friday accused Russian military agents of hacking the top echelons of Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s party and other sensitive government and industrial targets, and was joined by NATO and fellow European countries in warning that Russia’s cyberespionage would have consequences.

Relations between Russia and Germany were already tense, with Germany providing military support to Ukraine in its ongoing war with Russia.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said Russian military cyber operators were behind the hacking of emails of the Social Democrats, the leading party in the governing coalition. Officials said they did so by exploiting Microsoft Outlook.

Officials described a hacking campaign that persisted for months.

The German Interior Ministry said in a statementthat the hacking campaign began at least as early as March 2022 — a month after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine — with emails at Social Democrat party headquarters accessed beginning that December. It said German companies, including in the defense and aerospace sectors, as well as targets …