Brussels, 24/03/2011 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 23 March 2011, the European Commission was subject to a cyber-attack explained two Commission spokespersons, one of whom told AFP that all staff had been warned that morning that it was not possible to access their email from outside and several European Commission websites had been put out of action.
The spokesperson explained that the cyber-attack had also targetted the department of EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Catherine Ashton, whose department uses the Commission's computer system.
Another Commission spokesperson said that a serious virus attack had been made, which the EU's security services were working on but this was a typical virus and not an attempt to get access to secret documents for the European Summit on Thursday and Friday (which will examine sensitive issues like military operations in Libya, the eurozone debt crisis and nuclear energy). The spokesperson said he had no information at all to connect the cyber-attack with the summit. (L.C./trans.fl)