Hacker group Anonymous
Hacker attack on Rosneft’s German subsidiary
The Russian oil company Rosneft has a stake in the PCK refinery. Photo: Patrick Pleul/dpa-Zentralbild/ZB
© dpa-infocom GmbH
The Rosneft oil company is a mainstay of Russia’s economic empire. Now the German Rosneft subsidiary has been attacked by hackers in connection with the Ukraine conflict.
The hacker group Anonymous claims to have caused major damage in a cyber attack on the German branch of the Russian energy company Rosneft.
The Federal Office for Information Security confirmed reports from “Welt” and “Spiegel” that Rosneft Deutschland GmbH reported an IT security incident over the weekend. Rosneft is Russia’s largest oil producer. The chairman of the supervisory board is former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder (SPD). Rosneft Germany initially did not respond to a request for comment.
The company also reported the cyber attack to the Berlin State Criminal Police Office on Saturday. At the weekend, the public prosecutor’s office in Berlin initiated proceedings and commissioned the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) with further investigations, as a spokeswoman said.
According to Anonymous, the attack captured a total of 20 terabytes of data, including backups of the company’s executives’ laptops. In addition, it was possible to remotely delete 59 iPhones and other devices. According to the hacker group, the downloaded data will now be viewed. A publication of all data is not planned. Rosneft Germany has interests in three German refineries, in Schwedt in Brandenburg (PCK), Karlsruhe (MiRO) and Neustadt an der Donau (Bayernoil).
Rosneft part of the critical infrastructure
According to its own statements, the Germany branch of the state-owned company was responsible for around a quarter of all crude oil imports to Germany in recent years. The company is therefore one of the facilities of the so-called critical infrastructure. There are reporting obligations for such companies. The BSI offered its support for analysis and resolution, it said. You are in a “constant exchange”. In addition, the office issued a security warning to other areas of the mineral oil industry.
Anonymous describes itself as a “hacker collective”. However, experts do not agree on how tightly organized the group actually is. After Russia invaded Ukraine, Anonymous officially declared cyber war on the government in Moscow. In addition to minor attacks against official Russian websites, the hacker group claimed further actions: Anonymous claims to have paralyzed the security systems of Russian banks. In addition, the live TV channels of Russia 24, Channel One and Moscow 24 were temporarily hacked.
«Danger of a global cyber civil war»
Security experts are critical of Anonymous’ activities. “Western groups joining Ukraine’s fight against Russia in cyberspace are breaking the laws of their home countries,” said Finnish security expert Mikko Hyppönen. “The risk of being caught is very small, but it is there.” In doing so, the attackers also took a personal risk.
Rüdiger Trost from the security company F-Secure pointed out the danger that Germany would be drawn into the conflict because the hackers could be assigned to one country. «Rosneft hackers see themselves as part of the Anonymous collective. But supposedly they are German. What if Russia interprets something like this as an act of war by Germany?” One observes an increase in such activities and views this with concern, Trost said. “We are now seeing the real danger of a global cyber civil war that no one can control anymore.”