Germany girding itself for possible G20 cyber attacks

PanARMENIAN.Net - Germany is girding itself for possible cyber attacks on next week's G20 summit in Hamburg, by hacker groups or cells linked to foreign governments, its top cyber official told Reuters.

Arne Schoenbohm, president of Germany's Federal Office for Information Security (BSI), said authorities had set up a 24/7 special command center to defend against such attacks, just as it was preparing for any physical violence.

"We're preparing intensively for every form of protest," Schoenbohm said in an interview.

"As the national cyber security agency ... we're concerned about everything from (persistent threats) to groups like Anonymous and Lulzsec that could be planning political protests using cyber attacks."

Schoenboehm said the agency had no information about specific attacks, but had been carrying out so-called "penetration" tests to ensure the safety of computer networks involved when the leaders of the 20 major economies meet on July 7-8.

Dozens of cyber experts were standing by to respond to any attack, he said.

Some 20,000 police with dogs, horses and helicopters will be deployed to deal with tens of thousands of expected protesters in Hamburg.

Germany holds national elections in September. APT 28, a Russian hacker group that experts say has links to the Russian government, is believed to be behind attacks on the German parliament, political parties and think tanks.

Last week, the BSI said it had seen a fresh wave of spearphishing attacks aimed at businesses and government that use emails to get users to click on links that download malicious software.