19.09.2017 - 09:31
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Actualització: 19.09.2017 - 09:32
Low-intensity cyberattacks against the Catalan government increased by 200% during the first week of September in comparison with the same period last year. Yet, Catalan president Carles Puigdemont says his administration is ready to tackle the threat that cyberattacks pose.
“The Catalan government has a very powerful cyber-umbrella which can respond, just like it is doing right now, to the attacks that constantly come from around the world,” Puigdemont said during a visit to the Catalan Cybersecurity Agency on Monday.
Since 2009, the agency (formerly the Catalan Center for Information Security, or Cesicat) has faced more than 460 million cyberattacks, out of which 26,000 turned into cyber incidents, or attacks which compromise the system.
The worst attack to date occurred on November 9, 2014, when the Catalan government held a non-binding vote on independence. These attacks prompted the Catalan executive to strengthen its cyber security shield and boost the Catalan Cybersecurity Agency with a €7.5 million budget and 120 employees.
With two weeks to go before the independence referendum to be held on October 1, cyberattacks are becoming part of the political conflict. On Monday, the website where more than a thousand university staff had signed a manifesto calling for a “yes” vote was temporarily shut down following a “massive attack of false registrations.”
Political clash goes digital
As political tensions between the Catalan government and Spanish institutions over the independence referendum keep escalating, the internet has also become a battlefield.
The official referendum website (referendum.cat) was shut down last week after the internet provider received a judicial order demanding its closure. Immediately after, the Catalan government launched two new websites with the same content (ref1oct.cat and ref1oct.eu).
The new websites are registered with a company based in Luxembourg, theoretically making it harder for the Spanish government to shut them down. Yet, this past weekend, two major Internet providers in Spain blocked access to one of the websites following judicial orders.
