Germany cyber attack claim against Russia 'baseless': Peskov

The Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Russia was being unjustly blamed for the cyber attacks.
 
The chairman of Germany’s parliamentary committee on intelligence issues, Armin Schuster, said on Thursday that the government's computer systems had been targeted by an ongoing cyber attack.
 
German news agencies cited local security sources claiming that a Russian hacker group linked to the Kremlin named "APT28" had launched the attack on German government computer systems. APT28, also known by other names including "Sofacy" and "Fancy Bear," was also accused of meddling in the 2016 presidential election in the United States.
 
"We note with regret that any hacking attacks in the world are associated with Russian hackers but that each time they (the allegations) are made without any tangible proof," Peskov said during a news briefing in Moscow on Friday.
 
This is not the first time the Kremlin rejected such "baseless allegations."
 
The Kremlin had previously rejected accusations by Germany's domestic intelligence agency claiming that Russia was behind a series of cyber attacks in 2015 on German state computer systems.
 
Hacking ‘hysteria’
 
Russian officials have repeatedly said that the United States is trying to frame Russia as a sponsor of computer hackers and IT specialists hired to meddle in the political affairs of other countries.
 
The US “started this hysteria, saying that this (hacking) is in Russia's interests. But this has nothing to do with Russia's interests," Russian President Vladimir Putin said in 2016.
 
US President Donald Trump has spoken against this hysteria, describing efforts to link his 2016 presidential election campaign to Russian hackers as a “witch hunt.”
 
"This is the single greatest witch hunt of a politician in American history," he tweeted on May 18, 2017.
 
Trump has repeatedly dismissed any collusion between his campaign and the Kremlin despite Special Counsel Robert Mueller filing criminal charges against Russians believed to have clandestinely worked to influence the outcome of the election.
 
Even after 13 Russians and three Russian companies were charged with conspiracy to meddle in the 2016 election, Trump denied that his campaign colluded with Russia.