The attacker gained access to two email accounts where letters for 2012-2015 were stored

Russian military intelligence gained access to thousands of emails from German Chancellor Angela Merkel as a result of a hacker attack in 2015. This is stated by Der Spiegel.

According to German journalists, on May 8, 2015, a hacker with the nickname Scaramouche gained access to official computers in Merkel’s parliamentary office. On this day, the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II was celebrated in the Bundestag – diplomats from Russia were among the guests.

As a result of the actions of the hacker, the IT system was paralyzed for several days. According to investigators, he managed to download about 16 gigabytes of data, including thousands of letters from Merkel’s office.  

Experts from the Federal Criminal Police Administration (BKA), the Federal Information Security Administration (BSI), and private companies undertook to investigate the attack. As part of the investigation, more than 300 servers were seized. Investigators have requested legal assistance in 21 countries around the world.

According to authorities, the attacker gained access to two chancellor’s email accounts containing the full traffic of letters from 2012 to 2015. However, even five years after the attack, it is not known what information the hacker gained from the correspondence.

The investigation believes that Russian military intelligence is behind the hacker attack.  

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