A hacking attempt in December on the computer servers of the Polish Foreign Ministry was likely the work of Russian hackers, according to the Rzeczpospolita daily.

The alleged hackers were part of the APT28 group, also known as the Fancy Bear cyber espionage group, which experts identify as being associated with the Main Intelligence Agency GRU – the foreign military intelligence agency of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Russia.

In its Monday edition the daily wrote that in December last year, several employees of the Foreign Ministry received mails which contained a document allegedly from the office NATO Secretary General. Once opened, the emails were designed to download a Trojan Horse virus.

The attack was very sophisticated, the daily quotes one of the ministry’s employees as saying. It was conducted through the servers of a “foreign ministry from a Latin American country”, Rzeczpospolita quoted a Polish foreign ministry spokesperson as saying.

The ATP28 group is considered to be the elite of cyber espionage. It is best known from operations in the US, where it recently intercepted emails from Democratic Party politicians.

The attack on the Polish Foreign Ministry servers was foiled, and Rzeczpospolita says it was not the first attack of the group on the Polish Foreign Ministry.