Merkel’s CDU Party Targeted by Hackers – Security Company

Chancellor Angela Merkel’s German Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party has become the target of an attack carried out by the Pawn Storm hacking group, the Trend Micro global security software company reports.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Trend Micro said on Wednesday that Pawn Storm hackers used fake servers set up in Latvia and the Netherlands to carry out their April attack against Merkel’s CDU party.

"The attack consisted of seemingly coordinated credential phishing attacks against the CDU and high profile users of two German freemail providers," Trend Micro said on Wednesday, explaining that hackers used data-stealing malware to carry out the April 2016 attack.

According to Trend Micro, this is the first time that the Pawn Storm group targeted Germany.

In 2013, the US National Security Agency (NSA) was found to have eavesdropped on millions of Germans and tapped into German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s private cellphone.