Countering cyber-attacks by Turkey and Iran
27.10.2020
Question for written answer E-005820/2020
to the Commission
Rule 138
Emmanouil Fragkos (ECR)
Groups of Turkish hackers have attacked the websites of the Greek Parliament, the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Finance, the Police, the Fire Brigade, the National Intelligence Service and several public institutions. Recently, even the Hellenic Army General Staff’s website was downed for a short time. These attacks have been perpetrated by groups such as ‘Anka Neferler’, ‘Ayyıldız Tim’ and ‘APT35’.
Turkish messages continued to appear on the websites of the Ministry of the Interior and ERT, the public broadcaster, up to ten days later, possibly as a result of a lack of tools, know-how and resources. There are clear indications that Turkish hackers are coordinated and funded by the Turkish government. It was also revealed that Iranian hackers had breached the personal accounts of Greek Navy officers with Turkey’s blessing, and had probably also compromised the Navy's website, on which they may have installed malware. Cyber security is becoming increasingly important in the area of defence.
In view of the above, can the Commission say:
- 1.Does it have the tools needed to identify obsolete software and equipment in the Member States’ public services?
- 2.Are there programmes to coordinate joint public tenders so that Member States can modernise their hardware and software, minimising the risk of cyber-attacks, at a lower cost?
- 3.One year on from the adoption of the Cybersecurity Act and provided that it has assessed ENISA’s cybersecurity certification capability, does it plan to give ENISA a new role with more Member State involvement, using a more systematic approach to identify weaknesses and gaps in the system, aimed at optimising resilience, deterrence and modern defence?