Prague, Dec 13 (CTK) – The Czech Defence Ministry has started forming a unit of hackers to be able to avert cyber attacks on significant institutions, power plants, banks and hospitals in the Czech Republic, daily Pravo writes on Tuesday.
The intelligence officers, in charge of cyber security, do not wait for the parliament to pass an amendment to the law on the military intelligence service and they have started admitting IT experts, mainly fresh university graduates, and selecting the most threatened places, the daily writes.
At the beginning, the new unit will only focus on averting cyber attacks, while it is supposed to be capable of returning them in a few years, Military Intelligence (VZ) chief Jan Beroun said.
The Defence Ministry is also trying to dissipate the fears of its critics, such as mobile phone operators, primarily those into whose networks the intelligence would place “black boxes” to monitor their Internet operation and possibly reveal subversive programmes, Pravo writes.
The operators have expressed fears that they will not be able to guarantee the communication safety and confidentiality to their customers, Sarka Sulova, director of the ICT Union representing the operators, said.
However, Defence Minister Martin Stropnicky (ANO) said the VZ officers would minimally interfere in the operators’ business and the privacy of their customers, Pravo adds.
The ICT Union warns that the new law will have the opposite effect and it will increase the risk of cyber attacks, Pravo says.
Under the new legislation, mobile phone operators will have to meet the intelligence demands for which they will receive a financial compensation. If they refuse, they will face a fine of up to 20 million crowns, the paper adds.
The bill, which the lower house committees are assessing now, might be passed at the beginning of next year, Pravo writes.
In the meantime, it writes, the National Centre of Cyber Forces is being prepared. The VZ received about 300 million crowns to launch it and it has already recruited some 20 IT experts.
However, it has postponed the purchases of the centre’ s equipment until the new bill is passed. The government will have to approve the lists of places to monitor and technical means.
The VZ experts will monitor the data movement to seek “anomalies” in the Internet communication that might indicate the preparation of a cyber attack.
“Only on suspicion of a particular threat, they will ask a court for permission to monitor the content of the Internet communication, similar to the use of phone wiretapping,” Stropnicky told Pravo.
The intelligence officers will primarily follow cyber threats from abroad. If they find out that someone is preparing an attack inside from the Czech Republic, they will inform the police that are able to intervene against hackers now, Pravo adds.
In the case of an attack, the intelligence will be able to partially or fully block the network operation, Beroun said.
The VZ will be creating a database of vulnerable targets and the lists of suspicious servers. Its officers hope that the allied intelligence services will share information on potential cyber enemies with them, Pravo writes.
