Frankfurt (Germany), 2 Nov. (LaPresse) – The email inboxes of Die Linke MPs in the Bundestag have been paralysed by a massive cyberattack that flooded their accounts with thousands of emails. The party reported this, stating that it is currently unclear who is behind the attack, whilst the other parliamentary groups do not appear to be affected. The group’s parliamentary spokesperson, Ina Latendorf, described it as a ‘spam bombing’ attack, with messages coming from different senders, with different subject lines and written in various languages. “Every member of my group has already received over 20,000 emails, in every possible language, from all over the world and with a huge number of different sender addresses. They keep coming in every minute, every second,” Latendorf told ARD. “We’re trying to delete them, delete them and delete them, but this is severely hampering the operational capacity of our MPs’ offices.” According to Latendorf, the other parliamentary groups have confirmed that they have not been affected. Only minor slowdowns have been recorded in the Bundestag’s email system, thanks to the servers’ ability to handle the traffic. The MPs affected have been given instructions on how to filter the messages, and the Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) has been informed. The attack is reportedly not linked to the possible use of spyware against the iPhones of government ministers and MPs, as reported by Apple in recent days.
Germany: cyberattack on Die Linke, over 20,000 emails flood MPs’ inboxes
Frankfurt (Germany), 2 Nov. (LaPresse) – The email inboxes of Die Linke MPs in the Bundestag have been paralysed by a massive cyberattack that flooded their accounts with thousands of emails. The party reported this, stating that it is currently unclear who is behind the attack, whilst the other parliamentary groups do not appear to be affected. The group’s parliamentary spokesperson, Ina Latendorf, described it as a ‘spam bombing’ attack, with messages coming from different senders, with different subject lines and written in various languages. “Every member of my group has already received over 20,000 emails, in every possible language, from all over the world and with a huge number of different sender addresses. They keep coming in every minute, every second,” Latendorf told ARD. “We’re trying to delete them, delete them and delete them, but this is severely hampering the operational capacity of our MPs’ offices.” According to Latendorf, the other parliamentary groups have confirmed that they have not been affected. Only minor slowdowns have been recorded in the Bundestag’s email system, thanks to the servers’ ability to handle the traffic. The MPs affected have been given instructions on how to filter the messages, and the Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) has been informed. The attack is reportedly not linked to the possible use of spyware against the iPhones of government ministers and MPs, as reported by Apple in recent days.