Swedish Intelligence Agency Cautions against Increased Cyber-Attacks

Feb. 4, 2011 - PRLog -- Cyber-attacks on government, military and infrastructural facilities have increased alarmingly in the recent times. Countries across the world have repeatedly faced cyber-attacks on key websites and computer systems. Recently, FRA, the Swedish Signals Intelligence agency, has warned against more sophisticated attacks that could disrupt the services of public bodies, government institutions and business organizations.

Sweden, the third largest country in the European Union (EU) has well-developed information and communication infrastructure. Information Technology (IT) is widely used by government bodies and business houses. As such, cyber-attacks may compromise privileged business information, classified government documents, research reports and new technologies developed by business and scientific institutions. Investigative authorities suggest that crucial information concerning the business organizations is already leaked through the attacks. FRA website has also faced distributed denial-of-service attacks in the past.

The National fortifications Administration has warned that data leakage is one of the major causes for failure of Swedish Companies to win international bids in the recent times. The attacks are purportedly launched by external intelligence agencies and rival business organizations. While the purpose of cyber-attacks by foreign intelligence agencies may be to compromise intelligence, military and sensitive government reports, industrial espionage may be the motive behind similar attacks on business houses. Civilian services may be targeted for extracting personal information and indulging in financial crime. Therefore, cyber-attacks pose serious threat to information security.

The high dependence on IT indicates that cyber-attacks may disrupt supply of crucial civil services across Sweden. Regular in-depth security appraisal of the IT infrastructure through ethical hacking is crucial to identify and mitigate security flaws.

Information security professionals must devise new security mechanisms to prevent unauthorized access to classified government documents by cybercriminals and intelligence services of rival countries. Organizations must restrict access to computers holding privileged business and customer data. Government must act proactively to educate the civil society on the emerging risks in the cyber space. The government and business organizations must consider IT security as a necessary measure, rather than a compliance activity. They must invest sufficient resources for strengthening the defenses of the IT infrastructure of critical infrastructural facilities and business organizations respectively. Pre-emptive IT security measures would ensure that threat vectors are identified and mitigated before their exploitation by cybercriminals and rival forces.  

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