Ireland's presidency of EU makes it a cyberattack target, expert warns

Smarttech247 CEO Raluca Saceanu said: 'While the world is distracted with headlines about bombs and oil, this presents an opportunity for cyber criminals to act with almost impunity.' File picture

Ireland’s upcoming presidency of the EU will make it a bigger target for cyberattacks, which are increasingly focused on Government agencies, one of the country’s leading cybersecurity experts has warned.

Smarttech247 CEO Raluca Saceanu said bad actors are using the “fog of war” to ramp up cyberattacks against businesses and institutions around the world, with no immunity for Ireland as a non-combatant.

She said detailed analysis of online activity has indicated that the threat landscape has shifted to manipulating infrastructure and logistics systems, with 55% of attempted cyber attacks in the past week alone targeting government agencies.

Ireland will hold the presidency of the council of the European Union from July 1 until the end of the year. Over the six months, Ireland will host an informal meeting of EU heads of State, bringing together leaders from 47 European countries, the largest event of its kind ever held here.

However, the presidency comes at a time when the world remains gripped by geopolitical tensions and conflict in the Middle East. Ms Saceanu said that while fragile military ceasefires remain in place in the Middle East, cyber activity continues to escalate.

Analysis by Smarttech247 shows the threat level remains ‘high’, with Iranian hackers, The Handala Group, increasing their psychological and information campaigns. 

There is also evidence that Russian hackers are using a fractured global landscape to their advantage, and the likelihood of Ireland being targeted during the upcoming presidency of the EU has increased.

“The FBI has already warned Iran-backed hackers were targeting critical infrastructure, including water and power plants. As was shown with the attack on Stryker, Ireland is in no way immune to this kind of activity. 

While the world is distracted with headlines about bombs and oil, this presents an opportunity for cyber criminals to act with almost impunity. When Ireland assumes the presidency of the EU, it will arguably become a bigger target.

“With the world distracted, cyber criminals are using all the tools at their disposal to take advantage of weaknesses that are already known about. Even more troubling is the advent of AI targeting those weaknesses, and increasing the threat landscape for businesses and State agencies. 

"The real issue is speed: how quickly a weakness is found, how quickly it can be turned into an attack, and how quickly a company can respond. For organisations, the challenge is being able to remediate and respond fast enough.”

In 2021, the HSE was the subject of a severe cyberattack that disrupted patient services as hackers took advantage of vulnerabilities in the organisation’s IT system.

Ms Saceanu was speaking ahead of the ZeroDayCon cybersecurity conference taking place next Wednesday, which will hear from global experts including the FBI, NCIS, and Ireland’s National Cyber Security Centre.

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