'Russian hackers beseech European government'

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SANTA CLARA (ANP)- A hacker group associated with the Kremlin has most likely attacked a European government service in recent days. It is not known which country or organization is involved. The hackers sent infected emails last Monday and Wednesday.

Unit42, the investigative arm of security company Palo Alto Networks, discovered the attack. The mails had an infected Word document as an attachment, which contained the agenda of a defense conference. On the third page was an object that caused the computer to load malicious software from the hackers. Those who only read the first page were safe. According to Unit42, that was new and 'very smart'; only people, ie the intended victims, read through to page 3. The automated systems of cybersecurity are thus fooled and do not sound an alarm.

It is not known how many people have opened the appendix and what the hackers have captured.

Unit42 attributes the attack to Fancy Bear, a group also known as Pawn Storm, Sofacy and APT28. These hackers are held responsible for cyber attacks on Western targets such as the American Democratic Party, NATO, the White House, the World Anti-Doping Agency and the Dutch Safety Board, which is investigating the disaster of flight MH17. These are all organizations that Russia has great difficulty with. This is one of the reasons why the hacker group is associated with the Kremlin.