this is d.w. news live from berlin tonight more revelations about a cyber attack on germany lawmakers say it is still taking place the damage considerable german media reporting a russian backed hacker group known as psni is behind the attack the government confirming reports that computers at the defense and foreign ministries have been hit since it had data stolen meanwhile in russia as the presidential election approaches president putin lays out his vision for the country promising to cut poverty in half and to keep in the music with invisible invincible nuclear

weapons. and the beast from the east to savages europe a siberian cold front plunges the continent into a deep freeze bringing snow transport chaos in some of the lowest temperatures in you. i'm good to have you with us we are learning more tonight about a cyber attack on german government computers lawmakers confirming that the attack is not over ongoing and believed to be in the defense and foreign ministries security agencies reportedly detected the breach back in december and allowed it to continue in a controlled manner while they monitored it but lawmakers were not informed about that until this week a group with links to the russian government is suspected of carrying out the

attack. the german government's communication network has been breached by hackers the parliament secret supervisory body has been informed by the chancellor and security services and they say it's not over this is a very this is the actual cyber attack on the government's information network and it's ongoing the government has known about this since december it's spent weeks observing the cyber attack to learn more about the hackers activities not even the agency responsible for intelligence services was informed delegates are angry about being left out of the loop. but we would all understand if the chancellor's office said it needs to observe a critical issue a little longer. but the fact that no one said anything at all on the contrary means we are once again in a position to learn about such incidents from the media which i think is absurd. parliamentarians agree the situation is dire. that is not true. this is

a large of course although cyber attacks have been around for a long time the government and i t. security in this country aren't geared up toward them off the federal government must act on this now because it's a serious threat. the extent of the hackers infiltration of the german data network is still under investigation classified information does not appear to have been stolen. it's clear what we need to clarify now is whether documents were stolen or did not assume that sensitive documents have really been leaked because it concerns the federal information network it's all about communication there's no sensitive data on any server it's not that simple. there's still speculation about the origin of the attack and how it was carried out some analysts point to indications of russian activities while others warn against premature accusations you've got just one attack on germany's integrity is one too many and i don't care where it comes

from if it's from russia there's as much to criticize as if it had originated from the national security agency lawmakers now want to discuss the details in a moving up the parliamentary supervisory body on intelligence. for more on this i'm joined by isabel secure can she is a researcher with the digital society institute at berlin's european school of management technology it's good to have you on the show we we're hearing tonight that this cyber attack is still ongoing what does that mean yes so that means that the attack was discovered apparently by the security agencies in december two thousand and seventeen and since then they haven't wanted tarring the attack so they've basically not eliminated the hackers from the network but they've been monitoring and what they call isolating the attack getting it under control to observe so they're moving though that's being done now is information still being

destroyed or stolen well. but judging from what the officials say no there's no damn it's a more you know you can see say that as you were mentioning they say that the government. has been able or that intelligence has been able to monitor this attack in a controlled manner yes is that just is it a way of saying we can't beat them we can just contain them i think it's maybe a bit more i think it's more of a strategy to gather evidence about the hackers and what they are doing in the networks to observe them and to gather more information to in the end also to fit the attack maybe you know because if you if they're if these groups and you gain more knowledge about them and forensics as well ok so you know you're watching and learning what you have to say this tells us then about the state of of germany's cybersecurity readiness. yes so another interesting detail from the

story is that according to media reports these attacks were ongoing for up to a year maybe before they were discovered and that's obviously really serious because the detection capability is sort of better i think in this and it isn't isn't there worrying because we've had we've had the top german spy we've had the german chancellor more than a year ago talking about this warning out about this so the years the people with power they've known about the threat for a long time yes so so how are we being surprised so i think so what you're referring to i think is also the bonus talk back in two thousand and fifteen and in that case you know the people were afraid that maybe during the elections federal elections information would be leaked and it didn't happen so i think there was some kind of relief even that nothing happened and what this shows is that

groups hacking groups where from wherever they originate maher active and they are not there's not just one group targeting one specific institution but many of these hacking groups actually have multiple targets they conduct multiple operations and in this case and in many other cases the goal is to really get information that is truthful for intelligence agencies and the state so that's where the trying to do what about germany because does it have what it what we need what it takes to repel and do to stop these attacks well. no i think that i think there's room for improvement here right and this is this is really an ongoing project but i think for example the entire cyber defense structure has to be reformed it needs reform and what more does that mean in the over issue or a technology issue so it's a. it's a technical issue but it's especially

a manpower issue we lack personnel quality qualified eighty security personnel especially to conduct defensive operations but also on the off sense side you know people who conduct the hacks as well and so so this is a big gap and then there's also the cooperation between agencies needs to be much more smoothly and much better you know what we've got you know but you we've been hearing there is a bill for now years now i think you know watching you are probably going to be wondering after what we saw happen in the german parliament twenty fifty with the u.s. election with what's happening here you would think that there would be more resources and that the capability to rebuild these would be stronger than it appears yeah i mean i would say what we've seen throughout the past months were a lot of discussions about propping up offensive capabilities for example to hack back against opponents in cyberspace or they also build up

a central hacking agency security agency and i think we need to talk a lot more also about what to do on the defense these side and how to prevent attacks but especially also how to detect and react and this has been a focus in the cyber coalition treaty but we for example the cyber defense center peroration of different agencies. up until now has been very ineffective and well i mean obviously if you see what's going on there before we run out of time the russians were told that russia is behind this are you convinced. well you know attribution is always a tricky issue especially in the space so we cannot say for sure who it was but there have been indicators now according to speak or report that this russian group snake or laugh that's their name has been behind the attack so not. twenty eight the formerly bright designated group so they have been. so

their ex have it in the past so focus also on industrial and political or spanish and they are supposed to be quite sophisticated ok so it seems plausible for now at least that it's this group that it's to get this group just for and just watch if you're cynically yet technical indicators but political indicators are much more important as well yes i need to wait until we have to find out that history is about as always thank you very much we appreciate you coming on the show thank you here's some of the other stories now that are making headlines around the world italy's former prime minister silvio berlusconi has made his only joint appearance with leaders of his center right coalition it's an attempt to show united front and dispel rumors of internal rifts ahead of national elections this sunday mr berlusconi's center right alliance is the only group with a realistic chance of winning a majority european council president has arrived in london for talks with british

prime minister to resume a on wednesday may rejected an e.u. plan to allow northern ireland to stay in the e.u. customs union after britain leaves the e.u. is now challenging britain to come up with its own plan to prevent a hard border in ireland after breakfast. vladimir putin the russian president has used his annual state of the nation address to warn global powers that they must now reckon with russia's military might as well as boasting of his country's new generation of invincible nuclear weapons mr putin pledged to help poverty in six years and to improve the environment he's seeking an unprecedented fourth presidential term in the elections which are due in just seventeen days. pre-election video meant to impress and to intimidate showing a russian missiles said to be able to penetrate u.s.

defenses. russian president vladimir putin's state of the nation speech was a classic the performance he's long used an aggressive foreign policy to stoke his popularity and to air grievances. russia walls and continues to be the greatest nuclear power but nobody wanted to talk with us nobody wanted to listen well less than. the presentation also showed a nuclear armed torpedo that analysts say could strike the u.s. west coast called putin said in the name of peace. when you call when you will we are not threatening anyone and are not going to attack anyone we are not going to take anything away from anyone we have everything we need. but he also announced a new emphasis on the domestic economy and in the book there's a new bus that needs it nothing. we need our economy to grow faster than the world

economy i know it's not an easy task but we need that to happen in order to solve our social military and for structure challenges that. we would have shown you since then they've been through a better one who would use that. there was little detail on how russia would achieve that goal but the speech was a hit with the audience of senior officials and lawmakers. just because it's that nobody has to force the americans and to peace and cooperation russia has a lot of strength but we don't threaten anyone but we are able to have an impact on the future of the world and putin speech today confirmed it. because you are. hardly a hostile audience but with elections just over two weeks away it was a demonstration of strength and power meant to drive voters to the polls and what's expected to be another landslide in putin's favor. they're calling it the beast from the east a siberian weather system that's brought the coldest temperatures for years across

europe. the wintery weather system has caused widespread disruption to public services and a major travel delays like here at geneva's airport the busy hub was forced to suspend all flights for several hours after snowfall blanketed the swiss city overnight. heavy blizzards and biting temperatures are continuing to last year up from the far north to the mediterranean south a red alert has been extended as parts of britain faced severe weather conditions. but some have been enjoying the unusually snowy weather like these children in spain where hundreds of schools cancelled classes. in paris authorities urged commuters to leave their cars at home because of the treacherous roads and a drivers were left stranded in their vehicles due to heavy snow on motorways that you even reach the mediterranean with normally sunny nice blanketed in snow.

after a short break more have more here on the top of the hour then with more world news followed by the day to see you did. we make up over three quarters of africa the end of the two types we are the several services. they want to shape the continent's future expand part of it and join our youngsters as they share their stories their dreams and their challenges the seventy seven percent platform for africa majority.