Government focus on false reporting comes amid claims that Russia is trying to influence German election later this year

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

German government officials have said they are investigating an unprecedented proliferation of fake news items amid reports of Russian efforts to influence the country’s election later this year.

The BfV domestic intelligence agency confirmed that a cyber-attack last December against the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) used the same “attack infrastructure” as a 2015 hack of the German parliament attributed to Russian hacking group APT28.

Last month, BfV said it had seen an “enormous use of financial resources” and the deployment of a wide variety of Russian propaganda tools to carry out disinformation campaigns aimed at destabilising the German government.

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Russia denies involvement in cyberwarfare targeting western governments and institutions.

Steffen Seibert, a government spokesman, said Germany would use all possible means to investigate the spread of fake news online, saying the best response was greater transparency.

“We are dealing with a phenomenon of a dimension that we have not seen before,” he said.

The OSCE, which has 57 members including Russia and the US, said it had been the target of a cyber-attack last month, but declined to comment on a report in French newspaper Le Monde that APT28 was to blame.

Commenting on the cyber-attacks, the German foreign ministry spokesman Martin Schaefer said: “We take the incidents related to possible hacking attacks against the OSCE very seriously, and we also take other cases very seriously.

“It is obvious that everything must be done to prevent and impede such incidents as much as possible in our sphere, in our domain.”

On Monday, the Kremlin denounced a US intelligence report that Russia had tried to influence the US election in favour of Donald Trump, and said no evidence had been produced to show that Russian officials were involved.

German officials said Berlin had looked into creating a separate branch of the government press office that would specifically evaluate and respond to fake news items. The Czech Republic announced a similar move last month.

But sources familiar with the problem say efforts are in the early stages and may not result in any concrete steps, given concerns about the government being seen to try to manage news reports in an election year.

Angela Merkel, who has strongly criticised Russia’s role in Ukraine and led the drive for sanctions against Moscow, is hoping to be elected for a fourth term as chancellor.