Cybersecurity incident paralyses Slovak parliament – EURACTIV.com
Parliament Speaker Boris Kollár interrupted the National Council session Thursday, citing a “very serious” cyberattack of unknown origin while the National Security Council is yet to confirm.
Lawmaker’s computers, including voting machines, were down on Thursday, according to TV Markíza. Kollar said that even the cafeteria systems stopped working, which probably deprived MPs of a snack or late lunch.
Nothing like this ever happened in the National Council, said Deputy Speaker Peter Pčolinský (We are Family), commenting on the incident.
Though Kollár has promised that sessions at Slovakia’s sole constitutional and legislative body should resume no later than 8 November and could start earlier if the cybersecurity problem is soon resolved.
A report of the incident was sent to the National Security Authority, the government body dealing with cybersecurity confirmed, though its spokesperson, Peter Habara, said he cannot yet disclose details about the incident but refuses to call it an attack.
“The office would like to stress the difference between a cyber attack and a cyber security incident. Simply put, a cybersecurity incident is any event that negatively affects a system or software, while a cyberattack is a deliberate act, the aim of which may be, for example, to steal data or to render a system or an operation unusable” Habara explained.
Anna Zemanová from the opposition Freedom and Solidarity party suggested that the “attack” may have been staged because the coalition had too many absentees and the National Council was supposed to vote on several important bills. Zemanová called the interruption until 8 November “absurd”.
(Michal Hudec | EURACTIV.sk)
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