On September 9th, the domestic intelligence agency in Germany warned that a cyber hacker organization affiliated with the Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation (GRU, also known as Glavnoye Razvedyvatel’noye Upravleniye) has conducted cyber attacks on NATO and EU countries.
According to the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution in Germany (BfV) on social media platform X, it collaborated with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) of the United States, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the National Security Agency (NSA), and other international partners to issue a warning against the organization named UNC2589.
This warning comes amidst heightened tensions in Europe over suspected Russian hacker and espionage activities. The situation has escalated since the Moscow invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Earlier this year, Berlin accused Russia of carrying out multiple cyber attacks against the Social Democratic Party of Germany in power, as well as companies in logistics, defense, aerospace, and IT sectors.
In the warning, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution in Germany stated that the organization, also known as Cadet Blizzard or Ember Bear, engages in espionage and sabotage activities, typically involving website disruptions and dissemination of stolen data.
The agency further mentioned that the organization affiliated with GRU, known for its alleged involvement in the poisoning of former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia Skripal in the UK in 2018, has gained notoriety.
In March 2018, Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia fell into a coma on the streets of Salisbury in the UK, narrowly escaping death.
The UK confirmed that the two individuals had been exposed to the military-grade nerve agent Novichok developed during the Soviet era.
British prosecutors charged two Russian individuals, who allegedly used the aliases Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov, with the poisoning of Skripal and his daughter with the nerve agent.
In March 2018, over twenty countries, including the United States, expelled 153 Russian diplomats and intelligence officials in support of the UK and in protest against the poisoning incident.
Skripal was a former senior intelligence officer of GRU, and it is believed that the perpetrators who poisoned him and his daughter also originated from GRU.
Russian authorities have denied any involvement in the incident.