On the occasion of the recent hacking of Greek banks, SecNews attended the Action24 show "Freelancer" with Giorgos Tragas.
A few days ago, the group “Armada Collective” attacked the e-banking systems of three Greek banks and blackmailed them by saying that they would take them down if they did not receive a ransom in the form of bitcoins. In fact, as reported on the show “Freelancer”, well-known shipping companies also fell victim. SecNews, one of the first news outlets to report the information, had already proposed IMMEDIATE measures to deal with such situations.
Ultimately, however, the hackers were unable to obtain the ransom or affect bank accounts since the banks' electronic security systems functioned properly.
The show was attended by Mr. Manolis Sfakianakis, head of the Cybercrime Directorate, to talk about the incident. Mr. Sfakianakis said that it is very difficult to say that you have won or lost a battle when it comes to a cyberattack. Nevertheless, he stressed that our country has a very good team in both the Cybercrime Directorate and the National Intelligence Service, which collaborated directly with the Bank of Greece to deal with the attack in the best possible way.
Mr. Sfakianakis stated that everything has an expiration date and this also applies to hackers. Specifically, he says that our country successfully defended itself against the hackers who attacked our country last week using a special system. Thus, the hacking group was unable to cause any damage or take any money.
Regarding shipping companies, Mr. Sfakianakis states that they were victims of insecurity and not hacking and emphasizes how important it is for all companies to invest in the security of electronic systems.
The show was of course attended by SecNews and our own Andreas, the most suitable person to talk about hacking, electronic systems and cyberspace. Andreas, the “hacker” as Mr. Tragkas described him, but he himself preferred the term security expert or ethical hacker.
Andreas also congratulated the Cybercrime Prosecution Service, the National Intelligence Service and the Bank of Greece for their excellent cooperation, while he mentioned that it would be good to see similar close collaborations in the future.
Andreas states that it is of course easy for a financial organization to be attacked by hackers and in some cases no special knowledge is needed. In cases of hacking from one country to another, of course, a single person is not enough, but help from specially organized groups is also needed.
Andreas was asked by the presenter if he belongs to Anonymous and he gave the impressive answer that we all belong to Anonymous in a sense. You can see in the video below why he says this.
Watch the video of the entire show here:
[su_youtube url=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7y9cwAA8O8″ width=”740″]
