By Euro Weekly News Media • Published: 15 Dec 2014 • 12:12
HACKERS paid millions of dollars have targeted four Spanish Government ministries.
The departments of the interior, defence, foreign affairs and the Presidency were all hit by cyber attacks during 2014, with the blame being put on a team of professional hackers.
Email viruses, originating in Russia and China and aiming to hack into government and personal computer systems and mobile phones, were targeting data and personal messages.
According to newspaper El Pais the hacking attempts were carried out by a group of 20 specialists whose main motivation was hard cash.
It’s thought to cost around €3 million to hire them to break into a ministry’s systems, with up to €300,000 being paid to hack into an iPhone.
According to Felix Muñoz, CEO of security company Innotec System, it is hard to know who exactly paid for the hacking attempts, but the attacks came from Russia and China. Both countries have technicians with a very high level of expertise.
The Spanish Centre for National Intelligence (CNI) takes cyber attacks very seriously, to the extent that it has taken on an extra 50 consultant experts to combat the problem.
During 2014 CNI found 13,000 hacking incidents, 80 per cent up on 2013.
Share this story
Subscribe to our Euro Weekly News alerts to get the latest stories into your inbox!
By signing up, you will create a Euro Weekly News account if you don't already have one. Review our Privacy Policy for more information about our privacy practices.
Share your story with us by emailing newsdesk@euroweeklynews.com, by calling +34 951 38 61 61 or by messaging our Facebook page www.facebook.com/EuroWeeklyNews
By signing up, you will create a Euro Weekly News account if you don’t already have one. Review our Privacy Policy for more information about our privacy practices.
Download our media pack in either English or Spanish.