Cyber warfare rising across EU in bid to ‘destablise’ member states

The agency said a successful attack on key supply chains in Europe could result in “catastrophic cascading effects”.

This could include Ireland, which is dependent for the vast bulk of its energy supplies from Europe.

ENISA’s State of Cybersecurity in the Union report comes as Germany’s domestic intelligence service (BfV) announced on Tuesday it was establishing a special task force to counter potential cyberattacks, espionage, sabotage, and disinformation campaigns ahead of the upcoming federal election.

According to the BfV, Russia likely has “the greatest and most obvious interest” in influencing the election, particularly given the ongoing war in Ukraine. Germany is Ukraine’s second-largest financial and military supporter.

Also on Tuesday, the British National Cyber Security Agency said hostile activity in UK cyberspace has increased in frequency, sophistication and intensity. Boss Richard Horne said “cyber attacks are increasingly important to Russian actors, along with sabotage threats to physical security”.

In October, the EU condemned Russia for an “increasing number” of hybrid operations — including cyber attacks and sabotage and physical attacks — targeting the bloc.

ENISA said the EU has experienced a “surge” in cyber threats in the last year, fuelled by the fast pace of digitisation in society, and that the type of threats have become “significantly more complex and widespread”.

It said the wider political landscape heavily influences that actions of states and non-state cyber groups.

“Malicious cyber activity has become a clear component of wider hybrid threats, such as disinformation and physical acts of sabotage and violence, seeking to undermine and destabilise EU society, democracy and values,” it said. 

It said the Russian war in Ukraine was connected to “rising threats” of Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference (Fimi) and hacktivism — groups specialising in hacking.

The report a “concerning trend” was the rise in “hacker-for-hire” services — in some cases contracted by hostile states.

ENISA said it assessed the cyber threat level to the EU as “substantial”, meaning it was “likely” that key entities were being directly targeted by threat actors, while “serious disruptions” of essential and important entities was a realistic possibility.

The report said: “As geopolitical and economic tensions grow, cyber warfare escalates with espionage, sabotage and disinformation campaigns becoming key tools for nations to manipulate events and secure a strategic advantage.” 

It said Russian and Chinese groups remain “prominent threats” in the world of cyber espionage.