Russian cyberattack leaves CSIC incommunicado for two weeks, confirms Minnauki

After the invasion of Ukraine cyber attacks from Russia increased in countries that showed their support for the invaded country. State research centers are the main target of Russian hackers.

As was already the case with the Max Planck Institute or NASA, Supreme Research Council (CSIC)suffered on 16 and 17 July serious ransomware attack from Russiawhich was discovered on the 18th day.

The protocol, marked by the Cybersecurity Operations Center (COCS) and the National Cryptology Center (CCN), was activated immediately.

According to a press release from the Ministry of Science and Innovation, “To date, no classified or confidential information has been found lost or stolen.”

The measures used to control and eliminate the attack resulted in cutting off access to the network in various centersfollowing the strict international protocol needed to stop the incident and ensure that the attack does not spread to centers that were not directly affected.

CSIC is made up of 121 institutes and three national centers. distributed throughout the Autonomous Communities, therefore dependent on an extensive computer network connecting all centers.

According to the Ministry of Science and Innovation, despite the fact that 15 days have passed since the ransomware attack, only a quarter of CSICs have regained internet connectivity. The rest remain without contact with the outside world.

CSIC has several security mechanisms that have already prevented about 260,000 registered attacks.

After the invasion of Ukraine, Spain raised the level of cyber security to 3 out of 5 possible.

Similar attacks on key institutions in countries friendly to Ukraine have been repeated endlessly since last February. Russia is also subject to numerous cyberattacks. in their government agencies.

The war of the 21st century is not only fought on the battlefield.