Radio România Internațional

Tag: hackers

  • THE WEEK IN REVIEW

    THE WEEK IN REVIEW

    Deficit for the country


    Romania ended the year
    2023 with a budget deficit of 5.68% of the GDP, more than one percentage point above the figure
    considered when building the budget at the beginning of last year, which was 4.4%
    – the Finance Ministry announced on Wednesday. The good news is that the
    deficit of 5.68% in 2023 is still below that anticipated by the European
    Commission in its autumn forecast, i.e. 6.3%. The difference between expenses
    and revenues stood at roughly 90 billion lei, the equivalent of 18 billion
    Euros.




    Romanian MPs at Work


    After more than one-month
    holiday, the Romanian senators and deputies kicked off a new Parliament session
    on February 1st. Measures aimed at limiting gambling and keeping
    drug use at bay, as well as the bills
    needed to reach the milestones in the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, so
    that Romania can submit payment requests to receive the allocated European
    funds are high on the agenda of the PSD-PNL ruling coalition. The opposition USR & AUR have pledged to stall any
    further tax hikes and prevent the Socialists and Liberals from violating the
    Constitution, as the latter enjoy a comfortable majority in Parliament. The
    press in Bucharest is bracing up for a session fraught with heated debates in a
    year when Romania is going to have all types of elections, European Parliament,
    local, legislative and presidential.




    Hackers for the Prime
    Minister


    The Romanian government
    has amended through an emergency ordinance the cyber-security law so that state
    institutions may be informed in 48 hours on any security breach in the IT
    infrastructures of Romania’s state entities enabling them to have a rapid
    response. The amendments came after the cyber-attacks against the websites of
    the National Directorate for Cyber-Security and the Chamber of Deputies. The
    Minister of Research and Digitization, Social-Democrat Bogdan Ivan, says that
    the cyber-attack on the Directorate failed whereas 300 files of public
    documents have been stolen from the Chamber of Deputies, as well as classified
    data, such as copies of the IDs belonging to Romanian MPs. Among the stolen
    documents is the ID of Romania’s Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu, who now needs
    to get another ID card.




    Another Romanian
    politician gets bribe


    Anti-corruption
    prosecutors on Thursday carried out searches at the house of the president of
    Prahova County Council, (southern Romania), Liberal Iulian Dumitrescu and
    members of his family. On a 60-day pretrial conditional release, the politician
    and several other persons are suspected of bribery and misrepresentation.
    Dumitrescu says he doesn’t have anything to conceal and can produce any
    documents needed in the investigation. He has also announced his intention to step
    down from all the positions he holds in the party so as not to affect the
    Liberals’ image. Dumitrescu was one of the four prime vice-presidents of the National
    Liberal Party, part of the ruling coalition with the Social Democrats. He was
    also head of the party’s county branch.

  • June 21, 2019 UPDATE

    June 21, 2019 UPDATE

    EU The president of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker and the president of the European Council Donald Tusk hailed at the end of the Community summit on Friday in Brussels what they called a successful presidency of the Council of the EU on Romanias part. In turn, the president of Romania Klaus Iohannis presented a report on the Romanian semester and said the strategic agenda adopted by the EU leaders on Thursday fully reflects the 10 commitments included in the Sibiu Summit Declaration in May. He also voiced his satisfaction with the fact that, at his request, the EU leaders agreed to include the consolidation of support for the Republic of Moldova.




    HACKERS The perpetrators of the recent cyber-attacks on Romanian hospitals might be Chinese, experts with the Romanian Intelligence Services Cyberint Centre announced on Friday. The suspicion is based on the time when the hackers were active and on clues in the ransom messages. Four hospitals, in Bucharest, Husi, Dorohoi (in the north-east) and Alba (centre) were affected by Bad Rabbit 4. The attacks caused problems in the activity of the targeted hospitals, with delays in patient admission and discharge and in the issue of prescriptions.




    5G Romania joined the 12 developed states that have introduced 5G strategies in mobile telephony, which greatly increases rates of data transfer for mobile devices. A decision to this end was made in Thursdays government meeting, upon proposal by the Ministry of Communications. The ministry said in a press release that the 5G strategy for Romania had been the object of wider public debate, including proposals from industry and experts. In principle, Romania wants to launch such networks next year, with 5G coverage of all urban centres and the main roadways by 2025. It is estimated that this new technology will create over 250.000 jobs in Romania, with benefits amounting to 5 billion Euro.




    EUROPEAN GAMES The 2nd edition of the European Games began in Minsk, Belarus on June 21st. Until June 30th, 4,000 athletes from 50 countries will compete in 15 sports. Romania is represented by 123 athletes. The results in athletics, badminton, cycling, judo, karate, table tennis, archery and shooting will count towards qualification in next years Olympic Games in Tokyo. In the first edition of the European Games, held in Baku in 2015, Romanias Olympic team won 12 medals: 3 gold, 5 silver and 4 bronze.




    HANDBALL Lots were drawn in Tokyo on Friday for the four groups of the Worlds Women Handball Championships due to unfold between November 30th and December 15th. Romanias national side has been included in Group C together with Hungary, Spain, Montenegro, Senegal and Kazakhstan. The top three sides in these groups will qualify for the two main groups of the competition. Japan, as a host country, France, the world defending champions, Romania, Russia and the Netherlands (thanks to their good results in the European Championships) have directly qualified for the final tournament.



    (translated by: Ana-Maria Popescu)

  • Cyber and Information Warfare

    Cyber and Information Warfare

    The main battlefield of cyber and information warfare in recent years, cyberspace has gained increasing importance to Euro-Atlantic security, given that NATO recognizes cyber defense as one of its core missions. This is actually one of the conclusions of the 2014 NATO Summit in Wales, while earlier this year Alliance members recognized cyberspace as a domain of operations, just like air, land or sea. To improve collective cyber defense, in 2017 NATO decided to set up a command center for cybernetic operations.



    At the same time, each member state is strengthening its own cyber defense, by implementing strategies that include keeping vulnerabilities in check, counteracting attacks or working with foreign partners who share common goals. For instance, Washington has recently published the first cyber security strategy in the last 15 years. With details on that, here is our Washington correspondent, Doina Saiciuc:



    Doina Saiciuc: “In its new cyber security strategy, alongside an aggressive use of its own cyber weapons the Trump Administration wants to work with international partners to agree on rapid and transparent measures able to deter the hostile cybernetic actions of Russia and China. The document claims Russia, Iran, China and North Korea have perpetrated irresponsible cyber-attacks that have affected the United States, its allies and partners, without paying a price that would deter further cyber aggression.



    In another move, the US Department of Justice has announced that 7 agents of the Russian military intelligence services have been indicted in response to a global cyber warfare campaign that the Netherlands, Great Britain, Canada and Australia are blaming on Russia. Cyber-attacks can be launched from anywhere in the world, and the target itself can be anywhere in the world, making this whole process very hard to counteract. Catalin Arama, general director of the National Cyber Security Response Center, told Radio Romania:



    Catalin Arama: “Its not just that, right now, cyberspace allows an attack to target several areas, irrespective of borders, but rather that virtual space is continuously growing, expanding its impact on our everyday life. We are surrounded by all sorts of equipment. The IT world is booming, and all that comes with a series of vulnerabilities. Hence the need to identify and counteract these vulnerabilities by means of shielding actions. After all, communication, trust and information exchange are key. To those in charge of cyber defense, the process is much more complex. They have to defend a whole array of potential targets against a highly focused line of attack.



    IT technology is progressing very fast, with the Internet penetrating deeper and deeper our day-to-day activities and increasing vulnerability in the cyberspace. Vice-president of the Romanian Cyber Security Association, Ioan Cosmin Mihai, has details:



    Ioan Cosmin Mihai: “Technology is advancing very fast, and this brings about opportunities as well as risks. Cyber attacks are cross border crimes. Simple cyber attacks may involve two, three or several states so the key word in fighting them is cooperation between relevant institutions. And to that effect, at legislative level we have the Budapest Convention of 2001, ratified by Romania in 2004. The vast majority of the states around the world have ratified that convention and the cooperation mechanism can thereby be implemented, but unfortunately not all the states have done this. There are still states that have not ratified the Convention, and when a cyber attack involves the systems in a state that has not ratified the Convention, such an attack is hard to investigate.



    In terms of innovation and research for the development of complex malware programs, as well as in terms of staging targeted attacks, state-sponsored threat actors are stronger than cyber attackers with financial motivations. These are the findings of a Russian cyber security firm, Group-IB, which analysed the activities of around 40 groups of hackers. These groups are financed by such governments as those of North Korea, Pakistan, China, the US, Russia, Iran and Ukraine, according to Group-IB experts. The firm has also exposed the use of a new spy vector, namely attacks targeting public officials personal devices, including at home and on the move.


    (translated by: Vlad Palcu, Eugen Nasta)

  • April 3, 2018 UPDATE

    April 3, 2018 UPDATE


    TALKS – On Tuesday, Romanias President Klaus Iohannis warned the Executive that the salary law for public sector employees ran counter to the principles of equality and predictability and called for caution in approaching economic policies. The head of state also said that transferring the obligation to pay social security contributions from employers to employees and reducing the tax on salaries lead to an insignificant increase in the net salaries, and the effect was annulled by the growing inflation rate. The president made the statements during the meeting he had with the Social Democrat Prime Minister Viorica Dancila and the Labour Minister Lia Olguta Vasilescu. In turn, the latter ensured the president of the fact that the financial resources needed for the application of the salary law and the subsequent pay rises were stable. We recall that lately, the coalition government formed by the Social Democratic Party and the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats has been the target of many protests triggered by the new salary law.



    MOTION – The Chamber of Deputies in Bucharest on Tuesday discussed the simple motion tabled by the opposition National Liberal Party against the Culture Minister George Ivascu. The Liberals have denounced negligence in preparing the events dedicated to the anniversary of 100 years since the Great Union and have voiced concern over what they see as the Governments inability to ensure a proper celebration of the day of December 1st. The Liberals say that a public debate is needed in order to put together a national plan for the celebration of the centennial. The Save Romania Union and the Peoples Movement Party are also supporting the motion. The vote has been scheduled for Wednesday.



    GENDARMERIE – A special military ceremony was held on Tuesday in the capital Bucharest, marking the anniversary of 168 years since the establishment of the Romanian Gendarmerie. Many cities in the country have been hosting events devoted to this anniversary, with activities for both kids and adults. In Bucharest people were invited to participate in the Gendarmerie Race over a distance of 5 kilometers.



    MOLDOVA – As many as four parties would make it to Parliament in Chisinau, if early elections were called, according to the results of a poll presented by the Moldovan Association of Sociologists and Demographers. These are President Igor Dodons pro-Russian Party of Socialists, the pro-European Action and Solidarity Party, the ruling Democratic Party and the pro-European Dignity and Truth Platform. The poll shows that the pro-Moscow president Igor Dodon enjoys the trust of 50% of the people interviewed, followed by the leader of the Action and Solidarity Party Maia Sandu and the former communist President Vladimir Voronin. More than half of the respondents do not trust any politician.



    HACKERS – 20 hackers have been arrested in Romania and Italy after stealing approximately one million Euros from bank clients, the European Unions Judicial Cooperation Unit (Eurojust) announced on Tuesday. The hackers have stolen from more than 100 clients of banks from both countries. According to Eurojust, the hackers sent to those banks clients e-mails resembling those sent by banks or fiscal authorities and thus obtained personal data and information about their bank accounts.



    CONSTRUCTION – The Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on Tuesday launched the construction of the first nuclear power plant in Turkey, by the Russian giant Rosatom. According to France Presse, this is evidence of the two countries flourishing relationship. The 20 billion Euro project is part of a development plan initiated by Erdogan, who wants to turn Turkey into one of the worlds ten richest countries by 2023, when the Turkish Republic celebrates its 100th anniversary. On Wednesday, the two presidents will be joined by the Iranian president Hassan Rohani to discuss Syria. Ankara and Moscow have overcome the diplomatic crisis triggered by the incident of 2015, when Turkish warplanes shot down a Russian military aircraft on the border with Syria.




  • Risques et vulnérabilités cybernétiques

    Risques et vulnérabilités cybernétiques

    Lors d’une interview accordée en février à Radio Roumanie, le chef de l’Europol a invoqué le nombre croissant des cybermenaces dont la complexité s’amplifie dernièrement par le nombre croissant de suspects radicalisés via Internet et qui agissent seuls ou en petits groupes. Le gouvernement américain a annoncé récemment que 5,6 millions d’employés du Département américain d’Etat et d’autres agences gouvernementales des Etats-Unis s’étaient fait voler leurs empreintes digitales par des pirates informatiques.

    Un nombre de 4,5 millions plus élevé que celui rapporté dans un premier temps. D’ailleurs, de nombreuses archives sont tombées victimes des actes de piratage avec vol de données. En Roumanie, en un seul jour, les experts en cyber-sécurité ont bloqué quelque 40.000 tentatives d’attaques cybernétiques. Un chiffre qui continue de monter. Chaque année, les cyberattaques engendrent des pertes économiques allant jusqu’à 445 milliards de dollars, une somme gigantesque dont la moitié est couverte par les dix premières économies du monde, lit-on dans une étude sur la cybercriminalité. Selon le document, les risques cybernétiques dépassent les aspects renvoyant tout simplement à la réputation ou au droit à la vie privée. Que cela nous plaît ou pas, on vit tous en pleine ère du virtuel et on doit s’habituer avec tous les avantages et les inconvénients qui en découlent.

    Souvent, la toile risque de devenir encore plus dangereuse que la réalité, lancent les experts dans ce domaine réunis en septembre, à Sibiu, dans le centre de la Roumanie à l’occasion du Congrès International « La cybersécurité en Roumanie – une plate-forme pour le dialogue public-privé ». De nos jours, la cyber-sécurité s’avère essentielle pour les Etats, les compagnies et les citoyens du monde, surtout que le nombre et la violence des attaques est à la hausse, déclarait à Sibiu le représentant de Swiss Webacademy, Laurent Chrzanovski, le manager de l’événement : Tous les systèmes utilisés à présent comme navigateurs, systèmes de rédaction ou d’illustration ont des failles dont les pirates informatiques profitent largement en l’absence d’un antivirus. En plus, je voudrais tirer la sonnette d’alarme quand aux actes criminels de plus en plus répandus sur les réseaux sociaux où il existe encore énormément d’individus tellement naïfs qu’ils tombent facilement victimes des hackers .

    L’ampleur des cybermenaces augmente d’une année à l’autre et les attaques visent notamment les domaines politiques, militaires et économiques- a précisé l’adjoint au directeur du Centre national Cyberint du Service roumain des renseignements. A ses dires, derrière ces attaques se trouvent 4 acteurs principaux: d’autres Etats, les réseaux de crime organisé, les extrémistes et les groupes terroristes. Gabriel Mazilu: La menace de cybercriminalité proliférée par d’autres Etats a l’impact le plus fort sur la sécurité nationale. S’y ajoutent en deuxième position les réseaux du crime organisé. Quant aux agressions cybernétiques déroulées par les extrémistes et les terroristes, ce type de menace est plutôt rare en Roumanie, notamment en raison d’un faible niveau technologique des hackers. Pourtant, on prend très au sérieux ces acteurs afin de mieux comprendre l’évolution du phénomène et anticiper le moment où ils frapperont à la sécurité nationale.

    Plusieurs organismes et institutions spécialisés dans la lutte contre la cybercriminalité agissent en Roumanie et font la chasse aux pirates informatiques. Pourtant, la meilleure arme contre les cyberattaques reste la prévention et l’éducation, opine le commissaire Sorin Stanica de l’Institut de Recherche et Prévention de la Criminalité de la Police roumaine : « La criminalité sur la Toile connaît plusieurs facettes, toutes aux conséquences très graves. Qu’il s’agisse de cyberharcèlements, en passant par les fraudes en ligne pour arriver à des infractions très graves de pornographie infantile, les menaces virtuelles ont toutes des conséquences bien réelles. Pourtant, il est très difficile de dénicher les auteurs qui profitent de leur statut anonyme offert par Internet pour agir sans jamais se retrouver face à face avec leurs potentielles victimes. » Ce qui ne fait qu’accroître l’insécurité et le besoin d’un plus de vigilance.

  • Les défis de la cybersécurité

    Les défis de la cybersécurité

    “Ceux qui sont déjà fermement installés vont se faire plus furtifs dans leur collecte dinformations, tandis que les nouveaux venus vont chercher des moyens de voler de largent et de mettre leurs adversaires en échec”, souligne le document. Où en est la sécurité cybernétique, dans le contexte où le nombre des vulnérabilités augmente ? Voici la réponse de Bogdan Botezatu, représentant de Bitdefender, entreprise qui offre des solutions de sécurité antivirus : C’est un concept difficile à définir dans les conditions où l’on voit apparaître chaque jour quelque 400 mille nouveaux virus. Pire encore, leur nombre ne cesse de croître, car il y a toujours plus de groupes cybercriminels qui visent les informations à caractère privé ou nos données d’identification.”



    Selon les analystes, certains groupes extrémistes et organisations vont davantage utiliser les réseaux informatiques pour lancer des attaques. Dans le même temps, les cybercriminels vont perfectionner les méthodes qui leur permettent de sintroduire de manière furtive dans les réseaux de leurs victimes et de subtiliser des données sans être détectés, puis de les revendre ou les utiliser à une date ultérieure. Les auteurs du rapport mentionné préviennent aussi que les pirates vont sans aucun doute sattaquer aux objets et instruments du quotidien connectés à Internet. Rien qu’un exemple: l’espionnage des réseaux numériques de téléphonie mobile ou GSM a affecté au moins 14 pays à travers le monde.



    Les mécanismes censés prévenir de telles cyberattaques sont-ils efficaces ? Nous écoutons Bogdan Botezatu, représentant de Bitdefender, entreprise spécialisée dans la sécurité informatique. En fait, aucune de nos communications numériques n’est plus sûre. Si auparavant, nous avons eu affaire à des criminels ou à des groupes criminels ordinaires, dont la cible exclusive était l’utilisateur habituel, à présent on assiste à une véritable guerre informatique, vu que des gouvernements aux ressources illimitées se sont directement impliqués dans l’espionnage informatique. Les chances de réussite ne manquaient pas dans la lutte menée contre les groupes criminels agissant dans le secteur des utilisateurs, car ces groupes disposaient de ressources relativement limitées. Maintenant que les gouvernements interviennent dans cette guerre informatique, la situation est tout autre. Ils peuvent même contraindre les entreprises à divulguer certaines informations, à mettre à disposition le flux d’informations de certains de leurs usagers ou forcer des réseaux informatiques entiers, tels les fournisseurs d’Internet haut débit, à acheminer en priorité vers leur routeurs le trafic des utilisateurs. En analysant le paysage informatique de cette dernière année, on peut conclure que les menaces venant des gouvernements sont extrêmement sophistiquées et impossibles à bloquer par les antivirus les plus performants, car les gouvernements respectifs ont les moyens de s’acheter des brèches de sécurité dans les systèmes d’exploitation, touchant ainsi une bonne partie de la population.”



    Le phénomène de la criminalité informatique ne cesse de s’intensifier. Au fur et à mesure de l’évolution de la technologie, son impact pèse lourd, au point que même des géants apparemment invincibles, tels que Facebook, sont victimes de ces attaques. L’Agence de sécurité nationale américaine (NSA), qui passe pour un des meilleurs services et des mieux équipés des Etats-Unis, a perdu” 58 mille documents secrets, en 2013. Leur dévoilement, par le célèbre informaticien Edward Snowden, ancien employé de la NSA, est considéré comme une des fuites d’informations confidentielles les plus importantes de l’histoire des Etats-Unis”.



    Toujours en 2013, les 50 millions d’utilisateurs du service populaire Evernote, dédié au stockage des documents et à la gestion des notes, ont été prévenus que la sécurité de leur comptes était compromise. Ils ont été priés de changer de mot de passe, tandis qu’Evernote a mis en place un nouveau système d’authentification. En février 2013, les comptes de 250 utilisateurs de Twitter, le très connu réseau social et site de micro-blogging, ont eux aussi été compromis, les hackers ayant réussi à dérober les noms des utilisateurs et leurs mots de passe. Les géants du commerce électronique n’y ont pas échappé non plus. En mai 2014, le géant de la distribution en ligne eBay a annoncé avoir été victime d’une cyberattaque ayant entraîné l’accès aux données personnelles de 233 millions d’utilisateurs.



    Bogdan Botezatu en explique l’enjeu. A chaque fois, il s’agit d’un enjeu financier, car on vise à écarter un concurrent du marché et ce pour une période indéterminée. Les grandes compagnies subissent le chantage de certains acteurs du marché informatique, à la recherche de gains financiers.”



    Une attaque informatique d’envergure, à très fort impact sur la société actuelle, est un risque qui plane depuis longtemps déjà sur le monde entier, affirment les spécialistes. La plus récente des références à un potentiel risque informationnel majeur a été faite en septembre 2014 par le représentant d’une importante autorité de surveillance financière des Etats-Unis. Celui-ci a mis en garde contre un éventuel nouvel Armageddon cybernétique, dont les conséquences à long terme seraient lourdes pour le système financier et qu’il a comparé avec les attentats du 11 septembre 2001.