‘Big firms are not revealing being hacked by criminals’

MAJOR companies in Ireland are keeping the fact that they have been attacked by cyber criminals quiet, senior gardaí revealed yesterday.

They say the firms have either not reported the attacks to detectives or have not told their customers.

Gardaí revealed that less than 5% of cyber crime in Ireland is ever reported to authorities.

Detective Superintendent Michael Gubbins, of the Garda Cyber Crime Bureau, said it is also possible that major companies may not even know they have been hacked.

‘There was one company we are aware of that when they investigated an attack, they discovered the criminals had been on their system for six or seven months.

‘The more people that report attacks, the more we can do. But at the moment, very few are reported – it’s less than 5%. It is not just an Irish phenomenon, it is global,’ he said.

Det Supt Gubbins said Irish companies and people ‘dodged a bullet’ with the unprecedented Wannacry ransomware attack last May.

However, a lot more people in Ireland were hit by the follow-up NotPetya ransomware attack.

He said: ‘Somebody came to me after a summer talk [on cyber security] and said they know companies that were victims of NotPetya.’

Asked if that is widely known, he replied: ‘No, and it cost them a lot of money and they are still trying to deal with it.’ He was further asked if these are big companies dealing with a lot of Irish customers, he replied ‘international companies’.

Last month, Dublin Zoo became the latest victim of cyber crime, where they lost more than €130,000.