Kremlin-linked entities are believed to have been behind a sophisticated cyber espionage attack that targeted the European Union’s embassy in Moscow and stole highly sensitive material from the mission’s internal network just weeks before the European Parliament elections in late May.
The fact that Russia’s intelligence services were involved in a hacking case whose main target was the democratic process of a Western political institution is of little surprise, but reports that the European External Action Service (EEAS), the EU’s foreign and security policy agency, did not did not share any information of the attack with Brussels’ most senior officials, including European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and European Council President Donald Tusk has caught many off guard.
The initial attack took place in February 2017, but was only detected in April this year and European officials are uncertain as to exactly how much and what kind of information was stolen by Moscow at the time.
