Intensity of cyber attacks remains high - Cert.lv

  • 2022-03-03
  • LETA/TBT Staff

RIGA - The intensity of cyber attacks in Latvia remains high this week, Baiba Kaskina, the head of the information technology (IT) security incident prevention institution Cert.lv, told LETA.

"The attacks are not complicated, they are relatively classic and to be expected. They seem to be aimed at making noise, raising potential alert and distracting, while more serious attacks may be taking place in the background," Kaskina said.

At the same time, she noted that successful attacks with a significant impact on the state and critical infrastructure sector have not been identified so far.

Kaskina also said that the main targets of the attackers are state and municipal institutions, critical infrastructure, as well as private sector companies that provide services or systems to state institutions.

According to her, the most visible cyber-attacks today are vulnerability searches, attempts to find passwords to state resources, denial-of-access attacks, and targeted attacks on government employees, including various phishing e-mails to steal sensitive information or e-mails with malware.

Kaskina called on companies to work in a more secure environment, and citizens should be wary of fraudsters trying to take advantage of the situation, as well as false newsagents in the information space.

She also noted that Cert.lv continues to monitor and control the situation.

Cert.lv is a structural unit of the University of Latvia's Institute of Mathematics and Computer Science, responsible to the Ministry of Defense. The mission of Cert.lv is to promote information technology security in Latvia.