The Czech Republic’s chief of counterintelligence has said that his country’s security forces had dismantled a Russian espionage ring last year that had been planning cyberattacks against the European Union member state.
The BIS counterintelligence service said last year that Russian intelligence services were behind cyber attacks targeting the Czech foreign ministry. The BIS warned that Russia had continued to use undeclared intelligence officers acting under diplomatic cover as part of a general hybrid warfare strategy against EU and NATO member states.
Czech counterintelligence and its organized-crime police unit cooperated to “completely paralyze” the Russian cyberattack network in 2018, The Associated Press cited BIS chief Michal Koudelka as saying Monday.
Czech authorities have accused hacking groups associated with Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) and the military intelligence agency GRU of waging cyberespionage campaigns.
Russia’s Embassy in Prague dismissed Koudelka’s words, saying: “Czech media speculation about a ‘Russian spy network’ and its ties to the Russian Embassy has nothing to do with reality.”