80 new hackers at the side of the National Intelligence Service to deal with new threats: 80 new agents of the National Intelligence Service will fall in the battle for the country's cybersecurity, at a time when cyberattacks are beginning to concern several states more than conventional wars.
Report from "Sunday Nation"
These are... genius agents, with multi-page CVs in the IT sector, who are included in the 302 recruitments by the EYP that were made through a competition that was announced by the SYRIZA-ANEL government and continued during the days of the current government.
The last time the Greek secret services recruited was in 2009, as a result of which “new blood” was considered necessary for the renewal of the staff. As for the competition, from the beginning, emphasis was placed on the cybercrime. This was the reason why almost a third of the recruitments concerned “computer specialists”.
Just last January, Turkish hackers breached security systems and brought down the websites of the EYP, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Prime Minister's website (primeminister.gr), while in April 2019, government websites were attacked with cyber espionage features. This is because the hackers appear to have aimed to intercept confidential information.
The authorities were also alarmed by the self-proclaimed "cyber army of Turkey", which last week brought down the website of the Municipality of Chalkidona, posting the phrase "know your limits". The hacking aimed at denial of service and had "DDos" characteristics, meaning that thousands of "zombie" computers were used that overloaded the systems with numerous access requests.
The EYP intends to upgrade the country's defense against external electronic threats. The newly recruited agents are young people with advanced IT knowledge, have master's and doctoral degrees and will start work by the end of next month. The final recruitment process was delayed due to coronavirus. What remains is for them to pass some final medical exams and a two-week training at the School of Public Administration. Indicative, however, of the importance given to the cybersecurity sector is that, according to information from "The Sunday Nation", an order was given that the 80 IT specialists would be the first to cross the threshold of Katehaki Avenue.
An official who monitors international developments in the field of cybersecurity explains that "attacks are of three types. First, those carried out by individuals who want to show their power and cause damage to a state. Such hackers may be hired for an attack, for a large sum, by a country that has realized their capabilities. Second, those carried out by groups of individuals, whether business or terrorist, and third, those organized by states to hit an adversary who harms its interests. Cyberattacks may aim at communication-psychological warfare, at the malfunctioning of critical infrastructure or at the theft of confidential data."
At the same time, the government is working on a plan to reorganize the EYP. Among other things, there will be improvements in the cooperation of the secret services with the competent cybersecurity services of the Ministries of National Defense and Digital Governance.
Anonymous on "The Sunday Nation": "Financing cyberattacks"
Members of the hacker group "Anonymous Greece" who brought down the websites of the Turkish Ministries of Defense and Foreign Affairs last week, in response to the attack on the website of the Municipality of Chalkidona, "see" that hackers are being funded by the Turkish state.
"All Turkish hacker groups have relations with the Turkish security services. However, Turkish hackers cannot become dangerous. This is evident from the trivial attacks they launch. There will only be a problem if they hire other hackers, outside of Turkey, because the Turkish state finances such actions," members of "Anonymous Greece".
Greek hackers emphasize that cyberwar can take extreme forms: "Many people think it's a game. However, it's not like that in an era when everything is connected to the internet. Think about what would happen if someone gained access to a power plant and shut down all the automation. It could plunge a city into darkness and even worse.".
For their attacks on Turkish government websites, they report that "we responded with three DDoS attacks, while gaining access to sensitive medical data of thousands of Turkish citizens. We didn't tamper with anything of course, we just wanted to show them who had the upper hand. It was very easy for us. We as a country have no security gaps in important infrastructure and websites."
The world's most spectacular cyberattack occurred a month ago, when hackers wreaked havoc on the Shahid Rajaee port in Iran. According to the Washington Post, the attack was believed to have been carried out by Israeli hackers in response to an Iranian hacking attempt on Israeli water supply facilities. The hackers caused massive traffic jams on the highways leading to the Iranian port and reportedly diverted the course of ships.
Source: https://www.katechaki.gr/
