MOSCOW (Sputnik) – According to Hans-Georg Maassen, the head of Germany's domestic intelligence agency (BfV), some of the attacks could be traced back as far as seven to 11 years.
The "cyberattacks carried out by Russian secret services are part of multi-year international operations that are aimed at obtaining strategic information," Maassen said as quoted by Deutsche Welle on Friday.
The intelligence chief mentioned, in particular, the May 2015 cyberattack carried out by the Pawn Storm group that Germany claims has ties to the Russian government.
After last year’s attack, the German Interior Ministry could not confirm reports that the country’s lower house of parliament, Bundestag, was cyberattacked by Russian hackers.
A Bundestag spokesperson said in May 2015 that information was stolen during the cyberattack, as several data leaks had been detected.
The hackers are suspected to have used Trojan viruses to carry out the attack.
