Cyber risks and vulnerabilities

Earlier this year, Europol director Rob Wainwright told Radio Romania about the complexity of cyber risks

Corina Cristea, 02.10.2015, 14:22

Earlier this year, Europol director Rob Wainwright told Radio Romania about the complexity of cyber risks, given that many suspects are radicalized by the Internet and thus are ready to carry out cyber terrorist acts by themselves, as independent actors making up a very small community. This phenomenon has been gaining momentum of late, spreading global panic.

The US Government has recently announced that hackers have managed to penetrate the firewalls of the US Defence Department and extracted information from their database on 5.6 million digital fingerprints, by 4.5 million more than originally announced. Also this spring data theft targeted archives storing decade-long information.

In Romania, the Romanian Intelligence Service experts blocked nearly 40,000 cyber-attacks in one single day. These are but two examples, although news agencies are filled with reports of cyber crimes. The estimated impact of this phenomenon is staggering. Cyber crime amounts to 445 billion dollars worth of yearly losses, while the world’s top 10 economies bear half of this amount, reads a recent study. The document also points out that cyber risks extend well beyond aspects pertaining to privacy of data or reputation, while the inter-connection of digital devices and companies brings about new risks.

After all, we live in the digital era. But with all its pros and cons, cyber space can be even more dangerous than real life. At least this is the conclusion of a panel of IT experts from 20 countries who convened in September in the city of Sibiu, in central Romania, as part of the International Congress “Cyber security in Romania — A platform for public-private dialogue”.

Cyber security is key to states, businesses and ordinary citizens, as the number and scope of cyber attacks is constantly growing, says Laurent Chrzanovski, a representative of the Swiss Webacademy, who is also the manager of the Congress in Sibiu: ”All our operating systems, the browsers we use, the word processing or graphic design software, they are all flawed. And hackers take huge advantage of these flaws, unless you have powerful anti-virus software or a firewall installed on your computer. Besides, cyber crimes related to the field of social networking are also on the rise, because people are incredibly naïve when it comes to social networks”.

Cyber threats gain in scope from one year to the next. The attacks now not only target the political field, but also the military and the economy, says the deputy director of CYBERINT National Centre with the Romanian Intelligence Service Gabriel Mazilu. The Romanian official believes cyber attacks are masterminded by four types of hackers: states, organized crime cells, radical extremists and terrorist groups.

Gabriel Mazilu: “The greatest threat is posed by individual states, that have a big impact on national security. Next there are the organized crime networks, while cyber attacks by extremists and terrorists are at a low national security risk for Romania for the time being. While the technologies they use pose little threat right now, we are devoting a great deal of attention to these two types of actors in order to better understand how this phenomenon evolves and to be able to anticipate the moment it becomes a genuine threat to Romania’s national security”.

Organizations and institutions involved in combating cyber crime in Romania try to identify the hackers, as education and prevention are the best weapons against them, says Commissioner Sorin Stanica with the Institute for Crime Research and Prevention with the Romanian Police: “Cyber crime comes in different forms. It can range from person harassing or the so-called cyber-bullying, to more serious crime, such as online fraud, which can bring serious losses to the state or even child pornography using IT systems. The real issue at stake here is that the perpetrator remains anonymous. Why? Because more often than not, online criminals take advantage of their anonymity, which keeps them from facing their victims”.

Experts believe that social danger of cyber crime is really high.