Member states blamed for not upgrading security measures
BY BEN NIMMO AND ALVISE ARMELLINI
dpa, Berlin
Updated: 01-21-2011 11:02 am
Jan. 20--BRUSSELS -- European Union member states have failed in their duty to protect the bloc's flagship emissions trading scheme from fraudsters, officials in Brussels said Thursday as they confirmed that they were closing its spot-trading system for at least a week.
The EU's Emissions Trading System (ETS) allows businesses in each member state to buy and sell permits to emit greenhouse gases, effectively making it cost-effective to cut emissions. But in recent days, hackers have managed to loot accounts in five member states.
"This closure is a drastic measure as such, but not too dangerous ... We have around 14 member states whose registries have not been upgraded when it comes to security measures," European Commission climate spokeswoman Maria Kokkonen said.
Kokkonen confirmed that Austria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Greece and Poland were affected. Commission officials would not name the other 9 EU states whose security systems are not up to scratch.
Since the weekend, hackers have managed to break into private companies' accounts and steal up to 2 million emissions permits with a spot value of 28 million euros (37.7 million dollars), commission sources said.
That is less than 0.02 per cent of all the permits traded in the ETS, they stressed.
But the commission, the EU's executive, decided that the breach was sufficiently serious to suspend spot trading for a week while member states review their security policies.
Officials pointed out that the closure only hit the ETS spot market -- involving immediate sales, representing 20 per cent of transactions -- while the remaining 80 per cent belonging to the futures market remained unaffected.
The commission is responsible for the overall management of the emissions trading system, but Kokkonen stressed that security issues were up to each individual member state.
"As long as there was no fraud, those (countries) who didn't have adequate security measures didn't feel the need ... to do anything," she said.
The spot market is to stay closed until January 26, and could be reopened piecemeal if member states are slow to react.
In 2013, the various national registers are to be replaced with a single high-security EU one.
DoD, NATO meet to discuss cybersecurity
Meetings to help facilitate the development of a 'common vision' on securing NATO networks
BY TECHWEBNEWS.COM
via NewsEdge Corporation
Updated: 01-26-2011 12:15 pm
Department of Defense officials, including deputy secretary of defense William Lynn, are meeting with NATO and European Union officials in Brussels, Belgium, this week to discuss how they can work together on cybersecurity issues.
Lynn will be meeting with NATO's secretary general, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, and others. Hungary's Gabor Iklody is the point person on emerging security challenges for NATO, including cybersecurity, heading up a new office opened in August.
"It's an opportunity to bring cyber experts to really begin putting the implementation aspects behind the plan," a senior defense official told an official Department of Defense news outlet, the Armed Forces Press Service, on background, adding that the meetings would help facilitate the development of "a common vision based on the threat to better secure NATO's networks."
The visit follows up on a September trip during which Lynn met with senior NATO officials and ambassadors from NATO's member countries, and a November summit in Lisbon, Portugal where leaders including President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton discussed NATO's broader strategic priorities, with cybersecurity near the top of that list. At that time, Lynn urged NATO to develop a "cyber shield" over NATO members.
The Lisbon Summit resulted in a multi-part declaration that included a commitment to collaboration on cybersecurity. In particular, NATO committed to bringing a NATO cyber-incident response organization fully online by 2012 and to centralize NATO cybersecurity. The declaration also included commitments to develop an in-depth cyber defense policy by this June and prepare an action plan for its implementation.
Cybersecurity is an increasing focus of the U.S. military, which stood up a brand new organization last year, Cyber Command, that's focused on cybersecurity and headed by a four-star general. Military leaders have expressed interest in playing a role in the cybersecurity of critical infrastructure networks -- such as those at power plants -- as well.
Lynn is heavily engaged in technology-related issues at DoD. In addition to cybersecurity, Lynn has been involved in IT procurement reform, another top DoD priority. The military spends more than $32 billion on IT annually.
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