this is due to happy news coming to you live from berlin germany says hackers have infiltrated some of the government's most sensitive networks and media reports say investigators still don't know the extent of the breach brochure going tacklers are believed to have launched the cyber attack on a group that has apparently hit political targets the four killed from a cyber security expert also coming up president got to be putting lives on an ambitious vision for russia pledging to copy poverty and harm and on the nation with nuclear weapons that contradict intercepted.

i don't welcome i'm not touchy about good to have you accompany apologies in germany say hackers have infiltrated south the country's most sensitive computer networks media reports say the cyber attack was discovered in december but it may have been going on for more than a year a group with links to the russian intelligence is thought to be responsible the interior ministry has given very few details so far just a brief statement sources say russian hackers have been trying to attack the government they planted spying software that could have tapped saves to data the hackers apparent targets where the foreign and defense ministry as they searched for information about russia and ukraine. lawmakers are neither asking why they

heard nothing in their intelligence briefings even though the agencies apparently knew about the breach of a government to have said nothing possibly for months which is what we have to clarify it's completely unacceptable we're waiting intelligence on the reason something i cannot make sense of this is a clear violation of the law or refers to night we see germany is clearly not well prepared for cyber attacks it can't be interpreted in any other way as russian hackers appear to be going and i have the foreign and defense ministries for tottenham's ministerial i don't always. cyber attacks against german authorities are nothing new insiders say the government server is attacked more than a thousand times a day the government already sounded warnings about russian hacking last year. we have noticed that time and again german parties german politicians and individuals have been subject to cyber attacks by the hacking group a p t twenty

eight or other collectives that we would associate with russian service providers. and. i would like to take the opportunity to again make unmistakably clear that germany does not tolerate spying activities or intelligence operations of any kind by any country. that came after an attack against the german government allegedly controlled from moscow it said this new breach could have been even more sophisticated and dangerous because as we've heard this is a real threat a virtual war is taking place against germany possibly with the help of russian intelligence services we now need clarity. but for now you the government is remaining tight lipped about this latest attack even as parliamentarians demand answers. and to discuss this issue with me i have in the studio let us should say he's an expert for cyber security at the german think tank s w p welcome

to first of all how do you explain that one of jimmies best protected networks was susceptible to a cyber attack of this kind well this is pretty much standard practice receive government network breach just around the world in the last month so this is nothing new the reason why it's of course is really hard to keep a persistent actor out of the network you have thousands of users in these networks they sometimes they are not really skilled and or have no awareness about cyber security and then they click on a malicious link and then the network is infiltrated just as easy as that and this time a group which is called the a p t twenty it was is believed to be behind this attack tell us more about this group is also known as fancy that you know would be careful with the attribution question right now it is really hard to attribute who is responsible for any cyber activity because digital traces can be minute manipulated it can be easily forged language indicators and stuff like that is easily manipulated so it's really hard to tell right now but there are some indicators

that point into the direction but there is no smoking gun evidence so far and what do you know about this group and do you know whether this group is known to have links with the russian intelligence again the problem here is that we can determine technical things probably the model that is used for example could be russian origin is true but it's really hard to tell you about social ngs whether they are in fact instructed by the russian government or not so the social attribution question is even more complicated to answer here and it was as we saw in our report another cyber attack in germany on the german parliament the bundestag back in two thousand and fifteen in the same group the a.p. twenty eight was believed to have been behind that attack one of the lessons learned on cyber security after that attack well there were lessons learned absolutely but as i mentioned it's really hard to keep people out but just to give you a little bit of background the twenty fifteen attacked. was discovered not by german authorities but by a but a foreign actor or intelligence partners and we were informed today were to

discovered it ourselves so this is a little bit of an improvement i would say but there's much much more to do of course so as a cyber security expert what does the german government need to do to improve security because as we heard in our report one person said the appears to be a cyber war against germany yeah i would be careful with the terminology here this is standard is fear not a practice this is nothing like an armed attack or even a war so the term is a little bit misleading here what we need is better cyber hygiene within the ministries we need better educated people that are trained and have awareness not to click on every e-mail attachment that they receive because also talk about better technical measures better network measurement techniques in the ministries but i think the education part is probably the easiest and the most effective for now right a cyber security expert from the german thing to. be done just to have you on the program better. that would help bring you up to date with some other stories making news around the wide white house communications head hope pixels announced her

resignation she's seen as one of president trump's most trusted and longest serving pick things the resignation has nothing to do with the testimony this week to accomplish the panel investigating alleged russian meddling in the two thousand and sixteen election. u.s. treated john woodlot has said it will stop selling firearms and ammunition to people younger than the age of twenty one the announcement follows a similar move by fellow retailer dick's sporting goods fresh debates about gun control have broken out after last month's deadly school shooting in florida. russian president vladimir putin has unveiled a number of ambitious goals during his state of the union address to top lawmakers in moscow it comes ahead of the country's presidential election in less than three weeks time to see who's likely to win a fourth term as president told the audience that russia should strengthen its democratic institutions he also proposed raising the living standards of citizens

vowing to improve health care and education as well as cutting russia's poverty rate inhofe over the next six years. when you believe. joining me now from moscow is a bloody made me laugh he's a former deputy energy minister turned opposition politician he's a strong supporter of kremlin critic alexa navai who's been bob from drowning in this month's presidential election welcome to you now do you think this speech president to seems that russia needed for to expand liberties and also fears and strengthen institutions off democracy that's surely something you'd welcome one to you. oh i think everybody who is interested in the subject have observed dynamics of russian civil rights democratic institutions over the past couple decades while putin was in power we are in the company of the war

scoundrels in the world in terms of civil liberties in terms of political freedoms and lips not a secret to anybody so i think this is just one another example of for total detached demagoguery about we heard from many years including many other issues that have said today i'm going to meet the election is in less than three weeks it seems a fairly foregone conclusion that putin will win your body has called for a boycott of the poets what do you hope to achieve by that. i think we want to stay on the same side as the great majority of the russian population which basically shows no real interest in the procedure that they call the elections because you can see that basically on a very low interest on the t.v. debates between counter those. tremendous efforts by old administrative folks across the country to bring people to the polls were sort of the russians are not political enthusiastic so i think really the societies on our side people demand

answers they are fed up with demagoguery and you know they just don't want to play puppets in another installment sure will have the but president bush is expected to win by a huge majority and novel only has been bought from running and so you're encouraging people not to would why didn't you or the party but for what another candidate to give us support is a chance to vote for someone else because if you take a look at the real russian reality on the ground it took more than the decades to actually bring this national wide known and recognized candor that is not vitally we just don't have to in the years ahead of us we have only three weeks to prove forward absolutely on lone person would be. really the systems to put in that would be just another puppet kind of that would help legitimize his election would you want to do their jobs we want our candidates to be righteous there are holes in

them with constituent constitutional rights to run and give us a sense of how difficult has it been for you to be a member of the opposition in today's russia. it's extremely difficult to know when ever they will or will consume our home i have to look around because just a couple days ago one of the opposition heads of municipal councils in moscow was badly beaten and his car park when he was boarding his car to go home just because of his position he firmly opposes authorities in his district. was obviously a co-author over a late boris nemtsov we just recently commemoratives another anniversary of his murder it's not easy but we have to continue someone has to do this and stand up for russians for their rights and for their liberties and for the future of russia the to be rid of a former deputy energy minnesota and opposition politician thank you very much for

talking to you thank you europeans might be surprised to learn that spring has begun at least according to the calendar used by weather experts the continent still remains in the grip of an icy front from siberia heavy snow has forced fits into suspend air traffic in geneva after what britain has issued its most severe weather warning as this of may driving has a this and though the sun is shining in some places looks are deceptive. the sun rises over renishaw in western germany the clear skies belie the freezing temperatures across the rest of the country. it may be meteorological spring but winter isn't going away without a fight like here on lake constance in southern germany where the beach is frozen solid.

even the sun is no match for the so-called beast from the east the siberian cold front blanketing much of europe temperatures have plunged across the continent but not everyone is letting the chill get them down. and it's nice to drink something hot under the sun cinema under certain constantly complaining about the weather but we can enjoy the nice called days to get more inspire fly go barefoot on my terrace in the morning it doesn't bother me as the zone the sun is warm and beautiful if you dress properly and it feels like the beginning of spring to start from few hours on earth you know the sun has officially set on winter but the cold isn't ready to say goodbye to just yet the freezing temperatures are expected to continue throughout much of europe.

three times surfing world champion mick fanning who famously punched a shot that attacked him has announced that he will retire after this monster rip event in his native australia the thirty six year old grabbed headlines back in two thousand and fifteen after his tussle with the great white shark that was captured live on t.v. at an event in south africa and these pictures have been watched over twenty five million times on you tube he was attacked by another shot at the same event two years later. despite the terrifying encounters falling quickly returned to compete at the highest level. it was indeed obvious coming up ahead dying beings europe songs again spot of the mystery of a rapid decline in the populations but it will take action more on that in just a moment. and don't forget you can always get down menus on the go just down the road up from google all from the outlet store that you give you access to all the

latest news from around the was as well as push those occasions for any breaking news you can also use of these have been asked to send us photos and videos which you think might be of interest to us. stay with the w.'s crystal for me with you in just a bit with the business headlines. every journey begins with the first step and every language with the first word emerged in the. code is in germany to learn german and why not learn it simple online on your mobile and free shops d w e learning course includes german made easy. keeps on a global scale. it's all about this.