EU parliament network breached

network of the European Parliament has been targeted by a cyber attack that may or may not be linked to the attack against the European Commission and the External Action Service networks, writes Help Net Security.

According to the parliament's spokesmen, information technology services put in place some security measures such as blocking access to Web mail.

“This is not a couple of teenage boys hacking into the [EU] institutions,” said an official. “The parliament and the commission have separate networks, and so far it seems that they have been compromised in order to allow the attackers to snoop around and extract valuable information.”

According to European Voice.com, the attack on the parliament is thought to have begun on 24 March.

The Commission detected an intrusion two days earlier. It is unclear whether both institutions were attacked at the same time or whether the attack unfolded in stages. The official said that the attacks appeared to be co-ordinated.

That incident came one day prior to an EU summit in which leaders discussed the European-US involvement in Libya, to which the Russian and Chinese are opposed, reveals Security News.

Security analysts believe the attack was possibly unleashed by hackers based in China.