A more robust EU cyber agency could help member states defend their elections against “hybrid attacks”, the European Commission has said. Speaking at the launch of new cybersecurity proposals in Brussels on Tuesday (19 September), Julian King, the Commission’s security chief, said some hacker attacks had “political objectives”. “They can target our democratic institutions and can be used with other tools, such as propaganda and fake news, in hybrid attacks,” he said. “We need to be as serious about security online as we are offline,” he said. He also hailed Finland’s new “centre of excellence” on hybrid warfare, which is designed to help EU countries fight novel assaults. King did not name Russia, but Russian hackers and media recently attacked the French and US elections.
With Germany preparing to vote on Sunday, German authorities have also warned that Russia could leak MP’s secrets after it stole data from the Bundestag in 2015. An EU source said he was “surprised” Russia had not acted yet.
The source said one risk was that it could leak lots of dull real files and insert scandalous fake ones in the cache to try to create viral stories.
The new-model EU cyber agency was one of several Commission proposals on Tuesday that mainly targeted hacking for economic gain, crypto-currencies, and single market reforms.
Full Article: EU agency to fight election hacking.