EU Websites Hacked Hours Before Sensitive Summit

Hackers yesterday broke into the European Commission’s websites, just hours from a sensitive summit of EU leaders debating the situation in Libya, the euro debt crisis and nuclear safety, officials said.

“All staff were warned this morning” that “remote access to emails was no longer operational,” a spokesman for the commission told AFP.

Pages from EU websites, mainly those from the European External Action Service, which…

Iranian Hackers Cyber Attack Foes

Iranian hackers linked to the Revolutionary Guard’s paramilitary volunteer militia Basij have launched a series of cyber attacks on websites of the “enemies,” a state-owned newspaper reported today. According to The Associated Press, Gen. Ali Fazli, acting commander of the Basij, was quoted by state-owned IRAN paper as saying university teachers, students and clerics comprise Iran’s cyber army. He said the attacks were in retaliation for similar attacks…

French Finance Ministry under ‘Spectacular’ Cyber Attack

The French Finance Ministry has been cyber attacked since December by hackers targeting the treasury and G20 documents, according to a French news outlet.

Paris-Match magazine said between December and this weekend, the Ministry of Finance and the Economy had been the victim of “an unprecedented cyber attack,” with the management of the French Treasury department identified as the main target.

A senior official who declined to be…

NERC Sets Up Cyber Task Force to Protect Power Grid

The North American Electric Reliability Corporation is setting up a cyber-attack task force to evaluate and help protect the U.S. power grid in the event of an web assault, according to a release from the electric reliability organization.

The 40-volunteer strong task force will identify opportunities to boost existing protection, resilience and recovery capabilities associated with power…

South Korea under DDoS Bombardment

Forty websites belonging to the South Korean government, agencies and businesses came under attack yesterday, including those of the presidential Blue House, the U.S. forces, the military Joint Chiefs of Staff, the ministries of foreign affairs, defense and unification, the intelligence agency, parliament and the tax office, AFP reported.

Cybersecurity company AhnLab confirmed the websites had been hit by DDoS attacks and estimated that up to…

China Denies Involvement in Cyber Attack against Canada

China today rejected reports suggesting it was behind a January cyber attack on the Canadian government that breached the Treasury Board and Finance Department and forced their websites offline, according to media reports.

Canadian news outlet CBC reported yesterday the attacks have been traced to servers in China. It was unclear…

DOE Kicks Off Cyber Initiative with NIST to Protect Power Grid

The Department of Energy has unveiled an initiative that seeks to bolster cybersecurity on the electric grid in cooperation with industry and government, as well as publicly and privately owned utilities.

Spearheaded by the Department’s Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, and the…

Business as Usual after Nasdaq Confirms Cyber Attack

Exchanges and traders said they will continue normal business with Nasdaq OMX Group Inc. at today’s market open despite revelations that its systems had been hacked, Dow Jones reported.

Nasdaq OMX in a statement Saturday confirmed that its computer network had been breached by unidentified parties who installed malware on a Web-accessible system called Director’s Desk, a communications platform that stores critical data for more than 10,000…

US, UK Stock Exchanges Seek Security Help after Cyber Attacks

Stock exchanges in the U.K. and the United States have reportedly enlisted the help of security services after being assaulted by cyber attacks, according to The Times.

The London Stock Exchange is investigating a terrorist cyber attack on its headquarters last year, while U.S. officials say they have traced an attack on one of its exchanges to Russia.

The alleged attack on LSE came as it began transitioning to…

Officials: US ‘Getting Better’ at Finding Cyber Crooks

The federal government has made significant progress in identifying who is responsible for complex cyber attacks, a fundamental first step in determining whether the United States should retaliate and whom to strike, anonymous officials told  The Associated Press.

The growing cyber threat has prompted a greater governmentwide emphasis on collecting…