Several municipalities were hit by cyber attacks on Monday. A so-called DDoS attack, which is an abbreviation for "distributed Denial of Service" and also called an overload attack, where websites are exposed to so much traffic that they cannot handle it and become inaccessible. (Archive photo). Photo: Kacper Pempel/Reuters
Municipalities unprepared for rising cyber threats
A survey among IT heads of 75 Danish municipalities, conducted by Momentum, reveals that 97% believe cyber threats exceed their defence resources. Moreover, 77% observed an increase in cyberattacks over the past two years. Recently, several municipal websites were inaccessible due to DDoS attacks, which inundate sites with excessive traffic. Prior to the attacks, the Center for Cybersecurity (CFCS) was aware of the potential threat, allowing them to warn certain municipalities. CFCS’s head, Mark Fiedel, noted the attackers are often prorussian cyber activists, but characterized DDoS as more of a nuisance compared to severe attacks like ransomware, which holds data and systems hostage for ransom.