Pierluigi Paganini
August 08, 2016
The Garda Síochána, the national police service of Ireland, was forced to shut down its data systems in response to a malware-based attack. The Ireland’s national police put in place the emergency plan after the attack was launched from an external source, the Garda Bureau of Fraud Investigation is currently investigating the incident.
The attack was officially confirmed in a statement released a few hours ago from the Irish Police Headquarters in the Phoenix Park in Dublin.
The cyber attack occurred last week, on August 4th, as reported by the national police in its statement.
“An Garda Síochana identified a zero-day (a new strain) malware threat on one of our systems,” the statement said.
“Heightened security procedures were implemented and standard protocols were enforced across all Garda ICT environments to limit any effect on our systems.”
“Working with security experts the threat was identified and an appropriate solution was implemented across all Garda Síochana ICT systems.£
“An Garda Síochana are continuing our investigation into the incident. The Computer Crime Unit at the Garda Bureau of Fraud Investigation are investigating the source of this malware.”
The source of the attack is still unknown, fortunately, according to the Ireland’s national police none of its systems was successfully breached by the hackers.
According to the Irish law enforcement, attackers used a strain of malware that had not seen before, some of the targeted systems shut down while under attack.
“Any breach of the Garda’s systems could be catastrophic for the force give the intelligence and evidence – including forensic and DNA test results – stored electronically.” reported the Irish Times that first disclosed the attack.
Recently the Agency IT systems have been labelled by the Garda Inspectorate as decades out of date.
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(Security Affairs – cyber attack, malware)
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