Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/829623
2 BRITISH newspaper The Ob- server has seen a confidential ex- ternal risk assessment from the Maltese government's informa- tion technology agency (MITA), claiming that the Fancy Bears – a hacking collective that is of- ten associated with the Kremlin – would have carried out attacks on government servers. A source who spoke to the newspaper claimed the attacks had increased ahead of June's general election. "In the last two quarters of last year and the first part of this year, attacks on our servers have increased," the source said. "It's mainly phishing type of at- tacks, DDoS (distributed denial of service – during which huge amounts of data are used to bombard IT systems) and some malware on computer systems. There has been an increase of about 40% on the normal level of attacks we would expect. We do not believe they have penetrated our systems but some websites are drastically slower. There has been a tremendous amount of phishing emails – around five million a month." The news report comes days after Prime Minister Joseph Muscat confirmed that he had received information from a foreign intelligence agency that Malta would become a target for a Russian disinformation cam- paign. "We had been warned that we could be targeted and, after the allegations were made, two allied governments ap- proached us to say that they had serious suspicion that this could be part of a manoeuvre." The Nationalist Party has de- scribed the claims as ridiculous. The Fancy Bears hacking team have been associated with the Russian military intelligence maltatoday, MONDAY, 29 MAY 2017 News Danika Formosa Districts 9 & 10 Luke Caruana Districts 12 & 13 Simon Galea Districts 6 & 12 Christian Mizzi Districts 2 & 3 Arnold Cassola Districts 9 & 10 Ralph Cassar Districts 7 & 11 Marc'Andrea Cassar District 1 Carmel Cacopardo Districts 4 & 11 Mario Mallia Districts 2 & 8 Pascal Aloisio Districts 5 & 8 Districts 2 & 3 'Russian' cyber-attack suspected, source MITA suspicion that Kremlin- friendly hackers attacked government servers – The Observer The home page on the Fancy Bears' website includes a welcome message: Greetings citizens of the world. We are Fancy Bears' international hack team. We are Anonymous. We are Legion. We do not forgive. We do not forget. Expect us. THIS IS A PAID ADVERT