'Notable' rise in hostile state cyber attacks in Ireland
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There has been a “notable” rise in hostile countries using hackers and criminals to launch cyber attacks in Ireland, according to a Government report.
These incidents are designed to interfere with political and media discourse in Ireland, like other countries, the report said.
It said the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has been able to gather enough information on some groups to attribute their activity to specific foreign intelligence and security agencies.
The National Cyber Security Annual Update 2023 shows that last year was the NCSC’s “busiest year to date”, with a total of 5,200 cyber reports.
Of these, 721 were confirmed as ‘cyber incidents’ (incidents threatening a network requiring a response), resulting in 309 investigations.
The report said the bulk of incidents were in the second lowest of six categories of seriousness and that no incidents were recorded in the top two categories. The report put this down to the success of NCSC staff in stopping threats before they impact the State’s infrastructure.
“Ireland is host to a significant amount of data processing as a result of our EU membership, economic stance, and geographical location,” the report said. “It is evident that cyber security is a vital part of the Irish technology sector with over 6,500 people employed in cyber security in this country.”
It said the most common cyber incidents were carried out by criminal groups for financial gain, typically using phishing attacks or installing malware.
Phishing includes fraudulent emails, text messages, phone calls or websites attempting to trick people into giving over sensitive data, including on bank accounts.
Malware is malicious software installed into a system to damage, surveil or cripple it. It sometimes takes the form of ransomware — where the attacker demands payment to unlock the system.
The report said extremely large numbers of devices and networks have been compromised globally after criminals and hostile states identified vulnerabilities in them.
“The deteriorating global security situation has been mirrored in the cyber domain, with a significant amount of state-backed or state-sponsored activity observed,” it said.
“Some of this activity stems from ongoing attempts to obtain strategic or diplomatic advantage via espionage, with other activity attributed to the theft of intellectual property for economic purposes.”
The report added: "A notable trend in 2023 has been the rapid growth in so called ‘hacktivist’ activity targeting web services in Ireland and attempts at state-sponsored disinformation.”
It said hacktivists aim to compromise a system for political or ideological reasons, using a tool called Distributed Denial of Service (DDOS).
“These are inexpensive and low-impact attacks, with their primary motivation being to seek to shape political and media discourse in the State," it said.
"The NCSC has observed a number of state-backed hacktivist groups engaging in activity in Ireland in 2023 and has been able to attribute these to specific intelligence and security services.”
The report comes as draft legislation proposes to significantly expand the powers and remit of the NCSC, in addition to demanding EU laws on cyber security and critical infrastructure resilience.