The European Commission (EC) and the European External Action Service of the European Union (EU) were subjected to a computer attack that did not significantly affect their functioning, although the scope of this action is still being evaluated.
According to what a community source told EFE, the "cyberattack", of unknown origin and magnitude for now, was detected on Tuesday night.
The offensive could still be underway on Thursday, when a summit of European leaders is held in Brussels, according to Antony Gravily, spokesman for the EC for Institutional Relations and Administration.
Following the record of the attack, the Commission launched "urgent measures" of a preventive nature, including the provisional closure of access from outside to the EC's internal network and to the professional email addresses of European officials.
Community staff were also asked to change their passwords to access restricted areas of their computer network, added Gravily, who noted that these measures "are still maintained."
Neither the attack nor the precautions taken to avoid the possible leakage of internal data "significantly affected" the functioning of the European institutions, whose workers were able to perform their functions "with total normality" -except for the interruption of computer access from abroad-, stressed the spokesman.
Gravily downplayed the attack, since the EU institutions "are frequently the object of this type of action", and did not want to give more details of it "for security reasons".
For the moment, it is ruled out that other EU institutions such as the European Council - which hosts today's summit of Heads of State and Government - or the European Parliament have also been targets of the 'cyberattack'.
The Commission is carrying out an investigation into the nature of the action and its possible consequences, and will report on its results at a later stage.
Source: iProfesional
