Germany probes claims of pre-election MP hacking by Russia

Berlin: German federal prosecutors said on Thursday they are probing an alleged hacking attack against lawmakers ahead of this month’s German election that Berlin has blamed on Russia.

"I can confirm that we have opened an investigation on suspicion of espionage," a spokesman for the prosecutor’s office said when asked about accusations made this week by the German government about "phishing" attacks against MPs by Russian intelligence. Berlin strongly criticised what it called Russian attempts to influence the September 26 election of a new parliament and Angela Merkel’s successor as chancellor. It pointed the finger at hackers from Russia’s "Ghostwriter" group which reportedly specialises in spreading disinformation. German intelligence believes they have been trying to gain access to the private email accounts of federal and regional MPs.