Russian cyber threat to European elections

European political institutions are shoring up their defences after predictably being targeted by Russian state-sponsored hackers ahead of elections in May to choose hundreds of new MEPs

Sep-Dec 2018: Spear phishing attack on 104 employee accounts at German Council on Foreign Relations, The Aspen Institute in Europe and The German Marshall Fund

Operations in six nations targeted

BELGIUM 
GERMANY
POLAND
FRANCE
SERBIA
ROMANIA

Hacker group: Fancy Bear (aka APT28, Pawn Storm or Strontium). Described as skilled team of developers and operators collecting intelligence on defence and geopolitical
issues
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May 23-26, 2019: European Parliament elections. Total of 751 Members of European Parliament (MEPs) represent more than 512m people from 28 member states*
SPEAR PHISHING
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Email sent instructing user to change web- based email password to protect them from hackers. Includes weblink (shortened to bit.ly link to bypass spam filters)

User follows link to fake webmail log-in page (looks identical to real one), and enters user- name and password. Credentials stolen

Stolen ID allows hacker to access company systems to gather data and install malware designed to spread and damage computers
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EUROPEAN COUNTERMEASURES

Microsoft: Expanding AccountGuard threat-detection system to political
organisations in Europe – now totalling 14 countries

Google: Extending cyber security platform Project Shield to European political parties – previously only offered to news and human rights groups

Facebook / Twitter: Introducing safeguards to limit spread of misinformation
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*At time of writing, UK due to leave EU on Mar 29, 2019. MEP count to then lower to 705 
members 

Sources: Financial Times, Microsoft Picture: Gemma Brown © GRAPHIC NEWS