The start of SOCshare project

NRD Cyber Security, a company that provides cybersecurity solutions, consulting and other services, and Vilnius City Municipality have launched a EUR 2.9 million project to strengthen the maturity level of the Security Operations Centres (SOCs), to respond more quickly to cyber-attacks and to share the information received.

EUR 1.4 million of the project will be funded by the European Union, while the rest will be covered by NRD Cyber Security and Vilnius City Municipality. The project will run for three years.

According to Vilius Benetis, Director of NRD Cyber Security, the EU is providing funding to increase the maturity level of SOC. “SOC gives organisations the ability to see and analyse cyber security events so that attacks can be detected at an early stage and prevented. The project also aims to foster cooperation, so that the monitored information is shared with each other and with other EU organisations,” says the cybersecurity expert.

Cyber-attacks are on the rise

According to a report by the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), cybercrime increased by as much as 52% last year compared to 2021, mainly due to the deterioration of the geopolitical situation in the region. Cyber attacks intensified during the week of the NATO Summit in Vilnius, when attacks on (DDoS) self-service resources were the same as in 2022. According to cybersecurity experts, the increase in cyber-attacks ahead of events of national importance is a trend, and the increase in cyber-attacks during the NATO Summit has not abated so far.

“Following the war in Ukraine last year, the European Commission decided to develop mechanisms to detect cyber-attacks in EU countries more quickly and to react more effectively and quickly to them. So, in the project with Vilnius Municipality, we will not only strengthen the internal daily monitoring of cyber attacks, but also analyse cyber threats and share the report with other trusted SOCs. We hope to be able to identify and communicate cyber attacks more clearly,” says Mr. Benetis.

According to Jonas Pidkovas, Head of the Innovation Technology Group at Vilnius City Municipality Administration, the project will provide opportunities to increase the maturity of the Vilnius Cyber Grid (virtual cyber security team) – the qualification of the staff and to purchase the necessary software. “This will allow us to detect cyber security threats in Vilnius City Municipality companies more quickly and to share information with other cooperating companies,” says Pidkovas.

Sharing as the key method

Vilnius Municipality specialists point out that since the NATO Summit, there have been constant and automated attacks (with the help of bots) from various countries around the world. “Infected IT and operating technology devices, botnet networks and virtual servers bought with stolen bank cards are used. Often these attacks are configured by pro-Russian groups using servers purchased in Germany, the US, the Netherlands and other Western countries. The NATO meeting was aimed at disrupting services provided by the municipality and its subordinate bodies. The aim was to create negative associations between the NATO event and information disruption. Our observations show that the most frequent attacks (DDoS) were on self-service and information resources. Phishing attacks were also carried out to compromise municipal staff and internal infrastructure”, says Mr Pidkovas.

According to V. Benetis, the director of NRD Cyber Security, the variety of cyber threats is huge and criminals do not choose a specific victim, but try everyone and monitor who has security vulnerabilities. If information was shared, for example, about “infected” emails, other organisations could immediately react and block them.

Media coverage: https://www.lrt.lt/naujienos/verslas/4/2102993/nrd-cyber-security-ir-vilniaus-savivaldybe-uz-2-9-mln-euru-stiprins-kibernetines-erdves-atsparuma