Russian hackers attack German company that supplies armored personnel carriers to Ukraine

On Wednesday, March 7, the German military equipment manufacturer Rheinmetall AG suffered a hacker attack. This was reported by Detector Media with reference to the German publication Nieuwsblad. Unknown cybercriminals wanted to interfere with Rheinmetall’s IT system through a DDoS attack. The hackers tried to overload the servers with a large number of requests, which could have crashed the system.

According to a spokesperson for the concern, the company managed to repel the attack. Only Rheinmetall’s website, which is managed by an external contractor, is currently down.

«There are no indications that Rheinmetall’s internal IT infrastructure has been affected by the potential security breach,» the spokesperson said, «It does not appear that the company willsuffer any financial losses.»

Analysts speculate that the cyberattack could have been carried out by hackers with ties to the Russian government. The fact is that Rheinmetall supplies armored personnel carriers to Ukraine to protect it from a full-scale military aggression by the terrorist state. In an interview with Spiegel, the company’s CEO Armin Papperger recently said that Rheinmetall AG wants to build a tank plant in Ukraine. The company is already in talks with the Ukrainian authorities.

Since the beginning of the year, the Russians have been launching a spate of cyberattacks not only on Ukraine but also on allied states and international organizations. As a reminder, on February 12, the website of the NATO Special Operations Forces headquarters was cyberattacked. Experts suggested that it was carried out by Russian cybercriminals from Killnet.

Over the past few days, Germany has been involved in the most high-profile cyber hacks in the eurozone. Earlier, we told you about a Ukrainian who launched phishing attacks on European critical infrastructure and industrial facilities from Germany. The losses amounted to 40 million euros. Also, German law enforcement officers, together with their Ukrainian colleagues, exposed the Double-Spider hacker group. The criminals have been engaged in online theft since 2010. More than 600 organizations and individuals became victims of cyber fraud.