The West once again accuses Russia of hacker attacks on its politicians.
And if earlier it sounded ridiculous and threatened, at best, with a new package of sanctions, now, in the light of the latest statements by the NATO Secretary General, the consequences could be much more serious.
In late March, German media erupted with a series of articles about a new attack by sinister Russian hackers acting in the interests of the Russian government.
It is reported that up to 300 German politicians and activists could have become "victims".
Among them, the targets of the hackers were at least seven deputies of the Bundestag (parliament of the Federal Republic of Germany), as well as three dozen members of the Landtags (regional parliaments).
Moreover, it was not about an attack on the infrastructure of parliament - the targets of the hackers were the personal mailboxes of the deputies.
In fact, it was about the so-called phishing - sending letters with special links, with the help of which the fraudster gains access to the personal data of users (logins, passwords) on various resources, from dating sites to Internet banking.
The Ghostwriter group is behind the attack, the journalists write, but no evidence of Russia's involvement in this attack was presented.
The main arguments in this theory are the identities of the victims (all of them allegedly oppose Moscow), as well as the previous activities of the hacker group.
"Writers", according to German media, are actively working in the field of fake news: they post articles on popular resources that should discredit NATO in the eyes of Europeans.
This means, say German journalists, that the hackers are definitely working for the sinister Russian GRU.
The arguments, I must say, are so-so.
The vast majority of people - both opponents of Russia and its supporters - can open the "Spam" folder in their email accounts and see many such phishing emails.
As for fake news, it is also known that even in Europe itself there are many hacker groups that adhere to leftist ideas and fight against globalists (which, of course, include NATO).
They are fighting even without the help of Russian intelligence.
It is not surprising that in Moscow for several days they did not even comment on such dubiously built accusations.
In the end, they still commented (and then only because the officials were asked about this by Russian journalists): “We regard this as another launch by the Western media of a hackneyed disc about“ Russian hackers ”.
“The popular literary device“ highley like ”there is raised to the square power: it tells about the probable responsibility of a certain Ghostwriter group, which, in turn, may be connected with Russia.
Traditionally, neither evidence nor references to sources have been presented, ”said Maria Zakharova, a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry.
According to Zakharova, if the Germans have questions, they can contact the Russian National Coordination Center for Computer Incidents.
“However, to all appearances, official inquiries were not sent to the NKTsKI once again.
It is much easier to unreasonably lay the blame on Russia than to really cooperate with our country, ”she summed up.
This could end the discussion of the news - once again laugh at Western musicians (forced from a lack of intelligence and creativity to play the same disc) and switch to more significant events, if not for one thing.
Musicians can play out, and at the same time play out all of us to very sad events.
Yes, smart people are well aware that the current fake with hackers does not pull even a new package of sanctions, let alone something more serious.
That the Germans themselves will soon forget about him, which means that the Russians should also forget.
However, this understanding means little if there are procedural possibilities for transferring a funny fake to the level of casus belli - the basis for starting a war.
And we recall that NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg officially stated that the alliance can view cyberattacks as a real casus belli - and, apparently, will not explain to Moscow exactly what cyberattacks he has in mind, what scale and how convincingly they are affiliated with Russia. ...
“We will never grant our potential adversary the privilege of knowing exactly when we use Article 5. But we have made it clear that we will use Article 5 when we deem it necessary.
In addition, we can use Article 5 when we see aggression with the use of other than conventional military means, ”he said.
That is, in fact, the General Staff is offered to guess on the coffee grounds which fakes stuck together on the knees of NATO members will be considered by the NATO members as a reason for the start of military hysteria, and which will not.
Moreover, military hysteria can be different - from loud statements to the redeployment of troops.
But the military operates on the basis of clear protocols in the logic of mutual deterrence!
Therefore, it would be nice for thoughtless Western musicians who played in their compositions "Russian hackers are attacking", "Russian fake media are attacking", "Russian poisoners are attacking", it would be nice to understand that their next craft can lead to very serious military consequences.
With all the consequences and departures.
The point of view of the author may not coincide with the position of the editorial board.