Last July 16 and 17 the Superior Council of Scientific Investigations (CSIC) suffered a ‘randsomware’ type cyberattack, by which the network of connections is ‘hijacked’. To prevent information leakage, the CSIC It cut, without prior notice – as some researchers denounced – all connections, which caused its 149 centers, institutes and territorial headquarters to suffer partial and total interruptions during all this time. A situation that has lasted almost a month, since the agency has just announced that normality has already been restored in all the facilities.
The CSIC has explained that its computer system had a backup copy of all the institution’s information and “no loss of sensitive or confidential data has been detected.” The organization has underlined that it has “multiple security mechanisms that prevent more than 260,000 daily attack attempts”, and has pointed out that other international research institutions, the Max Planck Society in Germany, NASA in the USA, have received cyber attacks Recently.
A few days after the cyberattack, many researchers complained through their social networks about the cuts suffered and the consequences of this stoppage. «I have been unemployed for two weeks, which is going to affect my annual planning. Six other researchers depend on me who, if our work does not go ahead, will be left on the street in January. The work of years is paralyzed, ”he explains to ABC David Arroyo Guardenocybersecurity researcher at the Institute of Physical and Information Technologies of the CSIC.
Previous attacks
These cyber attacks on public administration bodies are not new: in 2021 some bodies such as the Public Employment Service (SEPE), the National Institute of Statistics and various ministries such as Education and Culture, Justice or Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation were victims of apparent targeted attacks.
This year, coinciding with the conflict in Ukraine, attacks have continued to increase in all member countries of the European Union, including Spain. For example, a few months ago a similar attack affected the Autonomous University of Barcelona, which was shut down for almost three months. In the last decade these phenomena have greatly increased, although after COVID and, lately, the war between Ukraine and Russia they have grown exponentially.