According to a report by cybersecurity firm FireEye, there are two hacking groups attempting to infiltrate the systems of European governments in order to influence the results of the upcoming elections next May.
As the company's report states, the two groups that appear to be based in the Kremlin and are known by the names Sandworm and Fancy Bear, have made repeated attempts to infiltrate the systems of many governments around the world, especially since mid-2018.
Benjamin Read, senior manager of cyber espionage analysis at FireEye, said that this practice could be done either to gather information so that the Russian government can make appropriate political decisions, or to leak data that could potentially harm certain parties or candidates.
FireEye told VICE News that the hackers' attacks appear to be focused on NATO countries.
Both groups have been accused of hacking into government or public services in the past. Specifically, Fancy Bear, also known as APT28, was accused of infiltrating the Democratic National Committee in 2016, while Sandworm was accused of hacking into Ukraine's electrical grid, causing power outages for hundreds of thousands of people in 2015 and 2016.
The attacks used by the two hacking groups are email spear phishing, aimed at tricking government employees into opening links that appear to come from the government. If victims click on the link, they are asked to change their password, but in reality, they are allowing the hackers to steal their credentials.
Analysts and lawmakers expect Russia to try to interfere in the EU elections in May, when 300 million people will vote to elect lawmakers to the parliament in Brussels.
