How Germany is guarding against election hacking

With just two days to go until Germans head to the polls, cyber security experts are working to ensure the country doesn’t suffer hacking of the sort which struck the US and French elections.

So far, cyber protection agency BSI says its seen no signs of hacking, suspicious news leaks or online sabotage ahead of Sunday’s federal vote, but it isn’t taking any chances.

“Cybersecurity is a top priority, and Chancellor [Angela] Merkel is taking it very seriously,” says BSI president Arne Schonbohm.

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While polls show Merkel is likely to defeat the Social Democratic Party, the concern is that Russian-linked hackers will try to strengthen the far-right Alternative for Germany, which advocates for stronger ties with the Kremlin, Bloomberg reports.

To “guard against mischief similar to what Russia instigated in the US last year and may have sought to do in France this spring, the Germans are shoring up their defences”, the news agency says.

For months, a special taskforce has been working with cyber-warfare support from the US military to plug weak spots and fortify electoral software.

Reuters reports that a publisher of vote collation software is implementing a series of BSI recommendations after private researchers discovered a number of vulnerabilities.

As for Merkel, one of her aides said the Chancellor “does not use emails” and handles personal communications via text from a secure phone, according to The Sunday Times.

The German government knows only too well the risk of being unprepared. In 2015, the Bundestag’s IT system was breached and large amounts of data stolen from MP’s email accounts.

The attack was blamed on the Kremlin-linked hacking unit APT28, or Fancy Bear, the same group tied to the US and French hacks, says The Atlantic.

“The hackers have not released the stolen material yet,” the website reports. “Some lawmakers have speculated there was simply nothing of interest in official Bundestag emails. But others fear the leaked material could still be published in the coming days, or even after the vote.”