Brussels, 03/12/2010 (Agence Europe) - EU Home Affairs Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom said in Brussels on Thursday after a meeting with EU home office ministers that the European Union will try to protect itself against cyberattacks but this will not be easy because nation states are directly involved in such attacks. The ministers discussed the issue in a debate on curbing cybercrime. At a press conference, Malmström gave the example of the attack on the WikiLeaks website, which published 250,000 US diplomatic cables and generated a crisis in the world of diplomacy. She said that WikiLeaks had been attacked by botnet (robot computer networks), but refused to comment on WikiLeaks' activities, simply saying that she had many o opinions on the issue, but it was not her job to explain them. She admitted, however, that countries were capable of carrying out such botnet attacks and this was problematic because it would be very difficult to prove that a state had carried out an attack. EU counter-terror coordinator Gilles de Kerchove says in a report to ministers that the cyberattack threat currently came from attacks by or with the aid of countries or individuals. He said the EU institutions had come under cyberattack and needed better protection, particularly the EU's new diplomatic corps (EEAS) for which protection against cybercrime is an essential precondition for the exchange of sensitive and personal information. De Kerchove called for the EU to prepare to defend its critical infrastructure, whose ITC systems might be vulnerable to attack. He said he favoured the creation of 24/7 teams in all the member states to take action in the event of a cyberattack ahead of terrorists gaining the technical knowhow and capacity to attack EU infrastructure. Cecilia Malmström admitted that the EU was only at the beginning of this process, describing EU legislation as “completely out of its depth” here. The Commission recently suggested an EU cyberattack early warning system, closer cooperation among member states and Europol, and a directive setting out heavier penalties for cybercrime (see EUROPE 10226). (B.C./transl.fl)