Information Society Minister, Dan Nica, stated Monday that cyber attacks have become more and more sophisticated, pointing out that the topic would be discussed on February 5th , at the CSAT meeting to decide on countermeasures and legislation update in the area, Mediafax reports.
“Romania, over the last period - and I am telling you that the last period is only what’s been released for the public - was the target of a major cyber attack. They did not exist before, during this period we have been watching and since the institutions surveilling cyber attacks have been established. (...) The attacks have become increasingly more sophisticated, unfortunately, they targeted an area that was explicitly economic like attacks on the banking systems, focusing on economics and politics "Nica said.
He mentioned that these attacks were caught early and that the organization under the Ministry, CERT, dealing with information society and responsible for cyber security issues together with other state institutions have taken the necessary measures, including warning and countering all these tests, which were of a magnitude never met before.
Nica also stated that from this reason he would propose to Parliament a draft law regarding the strategy and measures to be followed in the cyber security area.
“The topic, as far as I know, will be on the CSAT agenda of February 5th. Since then, we are taking a straight line and we will adopt measures that are similar to the ones adopted by our European partners, the Great Britain, USA, Germany, France. We have a set of measures for the same area. A legislation update is necessary, since it did not foresee all the types of crime and especially the countermeasures necessary in situations of cyber attacks and we are reacting rapidly too ”, Nica said.
President Traian Băsescu stated on January 21st, that over the last period “Romania was the target of an unprecedented cyber attack”, and managed to overcome it due to the training started three years before, when CSAT made the protection of the informatics systems a priority.
“Red October” was the strongest cyber attack on Romania over the 20 years, the Romanian intelligence service identified hostile cyber entities that focus on collecting confidential information and date on the Romanian natural reserves, Sorin Sava, the spokesperson for the Service stated January 19th.