How Russian hackers tried to hack European diplomats by seducing them with a fake wine tasting
16 April 2025 17:33
The Cozy Bear hacker group, which is linked to Russian special services, tried to trick European diplomats into downloading malware under the guise of an invitation to a wine tasting.
Politico writes about this with reference to a study by cybersecurity firm Check Point, "Komersant Ukrainian" reports.
The hackers imitated the European Ministry of Foreign Affairs to distribute fake invitations to diplomatic events, most often wine tastings.
The campaign appears to have targeted diplomatic institutions, including embassies of non-European countries located in Europe.
Some emails contained a malicious link that led to the download of malware. In other cases, the link redirected to the official website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which the hackers tried to imitate.
Check Point did not say which country’s ministry it was, saying only that it was “one of the largest” in the European Union. The idea of wine tasting is considered “good” there.
Check Point has not determined whether these hacking attempts were successful.
