Brussels, 20/01/2011 (Agence Europe) - All national registries of online transactions on the European carbon market have been suspended to protect the system from further attacks from hackers who were particularly busy last weekend. The decision was taken at 7.00pm on Wednesday 19 January and the suspension will last at least until 7.00pm on 26 January, the Commission announced on Wednesday evening.
The cyber-attacks on online registries in five member states - Austria, the Czech Republic, Greece, Poland and Estonia - increased over the last five days and were reported to the Commission by the countries one after the other, with Austria being the first to sound the alarm. Identity theft allows hackers to pose as companies involved in the ETS (Emissions Trading Scheme) and to steal emissions rights before selling them on very quickly on the cash market, Maria Kokkonen, spokeswoman for Climate Action Commissioner Connie Hedegaard, explained on Thursday. She went on to say that, over the last few months, member states had been asked repeatedly to upgrade the security of their registries. Member states' experts will meet on Friday 21 January in the climate change committee, she said, and it was expected that member states will indicate at that meeting what they have done to make their systems more secure. It is in their own interests to make it more difficult for the hackers as, in the Czech Republic, €7 million was stolen in this way. The total ill-gotten gains are still not known, but could amount to half a million emissions permits each worth €14. The resumption of online business will depend on the action taken by member states and how fast they act, the spokeswoman said.
In February 2010, following similar cyber-attacks, member states approved the guidelines proposed by the Commission to improve the security of national registries system which feeds into the Community Independent Transaction Log (CITL) as part of the ETS. According to Kokkonen, 14 of the EU's 27 member states have systems which are not up to the mark in terms of security. As the market regulator and general administrator of the system, the Commission is in permanent contact with the member states to provide online supervision of the registries. (A.N./transl.rt)