Skip to footer

Pro-Russian group claims responsibility for Merkel website hack

The Internet attack occurred just prior to a visit to Germany by the Ukrainian prime minister.

|
AP
The Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2015 screenshot shows the address line of an internet browser that is unable to open the internet page of German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Several German government sites have been blocked though there is no reliable information who is behind it.
  • By Reuters

| Berlin

German government websites including Chancellor Angela Merkel's page were hacked on Wednesday in a cyber attack claimed by a group demanding that Berlin sever official ties with the Ukrainian government.

The attack, against which counter-measures were taken, had left the sites periodically inaccessible since 10 a.m., her spokesman Steffen Seibert said.

"Our service provider's data center is under a severe attack that has apparently been caused by a variety of external systems," he told a news conference when asked if Ukrainian hackers were responsible.

In a statement on its website, a group calling itself CyberBerkut took responsibility.

'Berkut' is a reference to the riot squads used by the government of Ukraine's former pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovich, who was ousted during violent protests last February.

"CyberBerkut has blocked German Chancellor and the Bundestag's (lower parliamentary house) websites," it said on www.cyber-berkut.org.

The claim could not be independently verified.

"We appeal (to) all people and (the) government of Germany to stop financial and political support of criminal regime in Kiev, which unleashed a bloody civil war," it said.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk is due to meet with German President Joachim Gauck in Berlin later on Wednesday.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Pro-Russian group claims responsibility for Merkel website hack
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Latest-News-Wires/2015/0107/Pro-Russian-group-claims-responsibility-for-Merkel-website-hack
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe