CDU suffers a significant cyber attack: server down, constitutional protection activated
CDU suffers a significant cyber attack: server down, constitutional protection activated
Apparently there was a considerable cyber attack on the CDU. This reports the Bielefeld news portal NW.de, citing CDU general secretary Carsten Linnemann. Linnemann commented at an event of the Junge Union NRW at Paderborn/Lippstadt Airport. The attack on the Konrad-Adenauer-Haus was "blatant", said Linnemann. He did not give details, but all servers are down. Protection of the Constitution and the Federal Ministry of the Interior are involved.
cyber attacks are no longer uncommon these days and political parties are also affected. However, the current attack on the Konrad-Adenauer-Haus of the CDU in Berlin has caused a particularly much sensation. The Konrad-Adenauer-Haus is not only the seat of the CDU party center, but also a historically significant place. It was named after the first Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany, Konrad Adenauer, and plays a central role in the German political landscape.
The cyber attack means that all CDU servers do not work at the moment. This may have a significant impact on the party operation and internal communication. In preparation for the upcoming Bundestag election in September 2021, a functioning IT system is of crucial importance for a political party. It remains to be seen how quickly the CDU can take your server back into operation and whether sensitive data may also be affected.
The inclusion of the protection of the constitution and the Federal Ministry of the Interior shows that the attack is classified as serious. It indicates that the authorities do not rule out the presumption of a politically motivated attack. In the past, there have been similar attacks on other political parties and institutions in Germany. For a democracy like Germany, the security of the political infrastructure is of great importance, since attacks could endanger the integrity of the democratic process.
The incident also commemorates past hacking attacks on political organizations in other countries. The cyber attack on the United States (DNC) of the United States in 2016 is particularly well known, in which Russian hackers published publicly compromising material about the democratic party. Such attacks have the potential to influence political processes and to shake the trust of voters in political institutions.
The CDU is not the only party affected by cyber attacks. In recent years, other German parties such as the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) and the left goal of such attacks have also become. It turns out that political parties have to pay more attention to protecting their IT systems against such attacks and promoting awareness of cyber security.
In the following table, some examples of cyber attacks on political institutions in Germany are listed:
| Year | Affected institution | Type of attack |
| —— | ——————- | —————— |
| 2015 | Bundestag | Phishing attack |
| 2016 | Alliance 90/The Greens | DDOS attack |
| 2018 | CDU | Ransomware attack |
It remains to be seen who is responsible for the current attack on the CDU and what consequences from this will result. However, the security of the political infrastructure and the protection against cyber attacks should be of the highest priority for all political parties in Germany to ensure the integrity of the democratic process.
Source: New Westphalian (Bielefeld)/ots