PRAGUE: The officials of the Czech government on Friday said that Prague had been targeted by cyberattacks, orchestrated by a group that has links with Russia’s military intelligence service, the GRU.
The country’s foreign ministry accused the Russian group APT28, also known as Fancy Bear, of the attacks.
In a statement, the ministry said some Czech institutions have been targeted in the cyberattacks exploiting an unknown vulnerability in Microsoft Outlook from 2023.
German officials have also that the same group of hackers had also conducted a cyberattack on members of the Social Democratic Party in 2023.
Czech Interior Minister Vit Rakusan said his country’s infrastructure had recently witnessed dozens of such attacks.
Russian government orchestrated the cyberattacks
Rakusan told journalists at a news conference with his German counterpart Nancy Faeser that the cyberattacks attacks were orchestrated by the Russian government and its military intelligence service GRU.
He added the Czech Republic is the main target of the attacks as the European country it has been perceived by the Russian Federation as an enemy state.
An EU and NATO member, the Czech Republic, has provided Ukraine with substantial military and humanitarian assistance since the Russian war started in February 2022.
Czech police earlier this week, said they had shelved a case of two blasts at an eastern Czech weapons depot from 2014, blaming the GRU for orchestrating them.
They said the Russian side had also refused to cooperate on the probe into the explosions that had killed two local workers.
In March, Czech intelligence said it had found a Moscow-funded network that spread Russian propaganda and influenced across Europe, including the European Parliament.
