Germany’s Horst Seehofer promises clarity after hack attack

German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer has pledged to provide clarity on a massive data breach that has shaken Germany’s political establishment.

Seehofer told Süddeutsche Zeitung that he would meet the heads of the country’s criminal police office (BKA) and cyber defense agency (BSI) again on Monday to find out what they knew about the cyberattack and how they dealt with it.

The interior minister said he would share everything he finds out with the public by the middle of the next week at the latest.

“The public will know everything I know,” Seehofer said.

The security breach — one of Germany’s biggest cyberattacks — saw personal data and documents from Chancellor Angela Merkel and hundreds of other German politicians and public figures published online.

The interior committee of the German parliament’s lower house, the Bundestag, will also meet for a special session on Thursday to discuss the breach.

Read more: Six hack attacks that shook the world

SPD demands answers

Merkel’s junior coalition partner, the Social Democrats (SPD), demanded on Sunday that the government provide more clarity on the data breach.

Lars Klingbeil, the secretary general of the party, told the Funke media group the government must quickly shed light on “which agencies knew what exactly when, and how that was dealt with”.

“This should be a priority for Horst Seehofer. It’s about protecting our democracy,” Klingbeil said.

• Why it seems like everyone’s being hacked

  CCTV surveillance cameras hacked in DC

  Two people were arrested in Britain on Saturday after allegedly attempting to hack the Washington DC CCTV surveillance camera system just days before President Donald Trump’s inauguration. US media said 123 out of almost 200 cameras throughout the city were disabled by ransomware software. Officials feared a bigger attack may have been planned for the day of Trump’s swearing in.

• Why it seems like everyone’s being hacked

  Fears over Dutch election hack

  The Netherlands said it will count ballots from its election on March 15 by hand after fears its vote counting software is vulnerable to hacking. Several Dutch ministries and even the prime minister’s office have been targeted by Russian and other hackers. The rise of anti-Islam politician Geert Wilders (pictured) has piled pressure on mainstream parties in the upcoming vote.

• Why it seems like everyone’s being hacked

  Norway’s state institutions targeted

  Norway said Russian-based hackers have attempted to break into email accounts linked to the domestic intelligence agency. None of the accounts, used by the Foreign Ministry, the military, a university, the nuclear watchdog and the opposition Labour party, were used for classified information. A probe has begun into whether the group known as APT29 – also known as Cozy Bear – was responsible.

• Why it seems like everyone’s being hacked

  Anti-Trump song forced onto US radio stations

  Several US radio stations in South Carolina, Indiana, Texas, Tennessee, and Kentucky have been hacked by anti-Trump activists, the Verge reported. Instead of the stations’ usual music format, an unstoppable audio loop of YG and Nipsey Hussle’s hip hop track “F**k Donald Trump” played out. It apparently took the stations several hours to fix the problem.

• Why it seems like everyone’s being hacked

  Czech minister’s emails intercepted

  The Czech Republic’s foreign minister has confirmed that his own email account – and those of colleagues in the Foreign Ministry – have been hacked. TheNeovlivni.cz news site reported “thousands of files” were retrieved, but the Foreign Ministry has denied classified information was obtained. Russia has not been blamed publicly, but, privately, officials are pointing the finger at the Kremlin.

• Why it seems like everyone’s being hacked

  Hotel targeted by ransomware hackers

  An Austrian luxury hotel is to replace its electronic room cards with old fashioned keys after blackmail-hungry hackers gained access to its locking system. The Romantik Seehotel Jaegerwirt in the Austrian Alps says it’s been repeatedly targeted. In one incident, the owners had to pay 1,500 euros to ransom software hackers to get the room cards working again.

• Why it seems like everyone’s being hacked

  Becks’ email breach?

  David Beckham has blamed a hacked email account after British media alleged he sent a string of foul-mouthed private emails over his failure to be named Sir David by Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II. The Football Leaks website claims the soccer star was frustrated that he wasn’t given a knighthood and dismissed a lesser award known as the Order of the British Empire (OBE).

  Author: Nik Martin

Cyber defense agency under fire

German political parties have criticized the country’s cyber defense agency, the Federal Office for IT Safety (BSI), for its handling of the data breach.

The BSI clarified that it only became aware  of the full extent of the breach earlier this week on Saturday, a day after BSI chief Arne Schönbohm said the agency had known about isolated breaches in early December.

The Green party’s parliamentary leader, Anton Hofreiter, demanded Schönbohm explain himself urgently to an extraordinary parliamentary committee meeting.

The deputy leader of the business-friendly Free Democrats (FDP), Wolfgang Kubicki, suggested that Schönbohm should quit.

“A president who first says he’s known about the breach since the beginning of December and then backtracks to say he’s only known about it since January 3 must ask himself if he’s the right man for the job,” he said.

ap/amp (Reuters, dpa, AFP)

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