Pro-Russia group claims cyber-attack on German government websites
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Version 0 of 1. German government websites, including Angela Merkel’s page, have been hacked in a cyber-attack claimed by a group demanding that Berlin sever official ties with the Ukrainian government. The attack, against which counter-measures were taken, had left the sites periodically inaccessible since 10am (09.00 GMT) on Wednesday, Merkel’s spokesman, Steffen Seibert, said. “Our service provider’s data centre is under a severe attack that has apparently been caused by a variety of external systems,” he told a news conference when asked if Ukrainian hackers were responsible. In a statement on its website, a group calling itself CyberBerkut took responsibility. Berkut is a reference to the riot squads used by the government of Ukraine’s former pro-Kremiln president Viktor Yanukovych, who was ousted during violent protests last February. “CyberBerkut has blocked German Chancellor and the Bundestag’s (lower parliamentary house) websites,” it said on www.cyber-berkut.org. The claim could not be independently verified. “We appeal [to] all people and [the] government of Germany to stop financial and political support of criminal regime in Kiev, which unleashed a bloody civil war,” it said. Ukraine’s prime minister, Arseny Yatseniuk, is due to meet the German president, Joachim Gauck, in Berlin later on Wednesday. |