Hackers attack the European Union: the more dangerous modern cybercriminals
By Prempal Singh
The total number of hacker attacks on the servers of the institutions of the European Union has increased dramatically compared to previous years, according to the international business newspaper Financial Times. However, the indicators still fit into the global statistics, says expert in the field of information security Alexander Vlasov .
So, according to the publication, only in 2016 the European Commission’s server cyber criminals tried to crack more than 110 times, which is 20% more than a year earlier. In Brussels, amid growing activity from hackers, measures to ensure Internet security are stepped up.
“There is nothing surprising in the fact that the number of cyber attacks on individual institutions of individual countries is growing, this is a worldwide trend. Therefore, the increase in attacks in 2015 and 2016 on the European Commission, most likely, fits into the global statistics, and maybe even lower than the average growth, “explains the expert of the FAN.
Vlasov also noted that all hacker attacks can be conditionally divided into three large groups. The first is for the sake of achieving financial goals. Here, the attacks themselves are also divided into several types: attacks on financial organizations, banks, exchanges and insurance companies, when the attackers are simply trying to steal money, as well as stealing information that can be resold. “One of the examples of such attacks was the attempt to hack into the servers of our defense enterprises: the attackers tried to steal the industrial information for further resale,” Vlasov explains.
“As for ideological attacks, this is the second subcategory, they are engaged in extreme left and extreme right groups, as well as terrorist organizations that hack the servers of many organizations around the world to show their power to all. Although, for example, in the case of the same “Islamic state” *, this too may not be harmless, because crackers destroy the resources of state structures, trying to gain access to internal systems. This allows Islamists to learn how the European authorities will fight the IG * and what measures will be used, “Vlasov said.
The expert classifies the third category as intelligence and counter-intelligence services of the largest states.
“There is nothing surprising in this, since the time there was both intelligence and counterintelligence.Simply now, it is increasingly shifting to cyberspace. Therefore, it becomes clear what exactly cyber attacks are dangerous. If we take the first, financial part, it is direct economic damage to corporations and states.If we take the ideological part, the hackers hired by terrorists are the most terrible here, trying to either get information about how state bodies will resist militants or simply disable some vital systems of cities and even entire countries. Well, as regards the struggle of states with each other, it is a common practice existing within the framework of such agreements, so that attacks do not develop into an open war, “the expert concludes.
As for Europe, high-ranking officials of the EU are currently using banal encryption of e-mails, and the Commission itself is expanding cooperation with NATO to protect its servers.