Denmark says Russia hacked its Defense Ministry emails

Copenhagen denounces ‘aggressive’ behavior of same pro-Kremlin group accused of ‘malicious cyber activity’ against US

STOCKHOLM, Sweden — Denmark on Monday denounced Moscow’s “aggressive” behavior after a report accused Russian hackers of infiltrating the Defense Ministry’s email accounts.

“This is part of a continuing war from the Russian side in this field, where we are seeing a very aggressive Russia,” Defense Minister Claus Hjort Frederiksen told Danish news agency Ritzau.

A report published Sunday by the Center for Cyber Security accused a group of pro-Kremlin hackers of breaking into the emails of defense ministry employees in 2015 and 2016.

“The hacked emails don’t contain military secrets, but it is of course serious,” Frederiksen said.

The report identified the hacker group as APT28, also known as Pawn Storm, Sofacy and Fancy Bears, which has links to the Russian government and security services and has previously been named by the FBI and US Homeland Security as being behind “malicious cyber activity” against US government bodies.

The group is also believed to be behind other high-profile cyber attacks.

In Denmark, the Center for Cyber Security said earlier this year that the threat against Danish authorities and companies remained “very high.”