Security officials have warned lawmakers in the Bundestag of renewed cyberattacks coming from foreign intelligence services in the run up to Germany's parliamentary elections on Sept. 26.
The Social Democrat and the Christian Democrat parliamentary groups both passed on the warning, which was the third of its kind to come this year, to fellow lawmakers and staff this week, Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa) learned from parliamentary sources on Friday.
The warning, which was issued by Germany's domestic intelligence service and the Federal Office for Information Security (BSI), stated that hacking attempts targeting German lawmakers were intensifying.
These attacks often target lawmakers' personal and official email addresses, which, once accessed, can then be used by foreign intelligence services "to publish personal and intimate information or even fabricated false news in your name," the warning said.
Russian hacker group Ghostwriter is thought to have been responsible for a phishing attack that sought to gain access to parliamentarians' personal email accounts a few months ago.
The GRU, Russia's military intelligence agency, is thought to be behind the hacking group.
Phishing is the attempt to obtain someone's personal data through emails or websites in order to use that person's identity.
