Hackers attacked the Prague IPR. Through its systems mined cryptocurrencies, the institute fears the loss of data Home
“To damage the system so far, but their performance has dropped dramatically, to as much as 10 percent,” Boháč described. He could reportedly return to normal mode on Wednesday.
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According to the director of IPR, the attack started on Thursday, when the management of the institute thought that the threat from cyberspace would not be so serious. The day after, it was already clear that this was a serious security risk, so the institute would rather cut itself off from the Internet connection. Now, according to Boháč, all components of the system are being put back into normal operation, but due to caution and the construction of a new “defense”, the recovery is said to be slower.
The attack is also being dealt with by the National Office for Cyber and Information Security (NÚKIB), whose spokesman Jiří Táborský of the Lidovky.cz server confirms that IPR has reported an attack on its systems. However, he added with reference to confidentiality that more detailed information cannot be shared.
However, fears of data loss allegedly persist. “IT staff also warned us that such an attack is often followed by a data attack. They could, for example, block our access to them and then ask us for money, “the director of IPR explained his concerns.
Ondřej Boháč, Director of the Institute of Planning and Development (IPR).
He said he would like to be able to turn the matter over to the police for investigation. It is said that an attack by a “crypto miner” should not go unpunished. According to Boháč, however, he is not sure whether the perpetrator of the attack can be traced back.
The planning institute is connected to the systems of the Czech capital, which manages spatial data about the city. That is why, according to the director of IPR, there was a fear that the attack would not “overflow” into the structure of the Prague City Hall.
However, this does not have to be the case. However, the map Geoportal is temporarily decommissioned, in which, for example, a zoning plan is entered and serves as a basis for decision-making by the city management.
This year, cyber infrastructure was not attacked for the first time in Prague. “There has been a massive cyber attack on public administration systems,” Prague Mayor Zdeněk Hřib (Pirates) announced on Twitter on March 4.
According to him, there is no damage to the data of the municipality, involve NÚKIB in the evaluation of the attack, the goals of which included the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs. In mid-March, hackers targeted three private clinics in Prague, which knocked out the ordering system or access to laboratory databases.
IPR was tempting, it hides computing power
According to Luděk Sefzig, an analyst at the Cyber Security Center, IPR was a juicy bite. “The office for the proarchitecture of Prague has thousands of PC stations that provide certain performance for architects with graphics software, which was just right for hackers to extract cryptocurrencies,” he explained to LN. According to him, the saying about the blacksmith’s mare also applies: security authorities are often not prepared for frontal attacks by hackers. According to Sefzig, the most common are attackers from Russian-speaking countries and East Asia, especially China.
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According to cybersecurity expert and forensic expert in the field of IT Radek Beneš, it is usually very difficult to track down the perpetrator of an attack. “However, attackers use some code that can be identified in future cases. There is thus hope that the culprits will have an impact on the case, “the expert told LN.
Seifzig added that a certain degree of prestige and media coverage of cases leads hackers to attack public institutions. “Then this is due to the low readiness and resilience of the ICT structure of authorities and public institutions,” added Seifzig.
It is most often said that attackers’ systems receive emails in which they force the user to open a malicious link or file.