Cyber attacks hit European Commission

THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION has been hit by a "serious" cyber attack the night before a big summit meeting.

The attack took place just hours before the Commission and External Advisory Service were due to discuss EU economies, the future of the Commission and how the EU is engaged in war against Libya.

Apparently the Commission is always hit by attacks with various levels of success but this one was caused a big breach in data security, creating vulnerabilities within the EU network.

A source told the BBC that the European Commission has been forced turn off its Intranet and email in the hope of preventing compromised data from leaking out after the attacks. The source also told the BBC that all staff have been ordered to change their passwords.

"The Commission and External Advisory Service are subject to a serious cyber attack," spokesman for the Commission Antony Gravili told the BBC.

"We are already taking urgent measures to tackle this. An inquiry's been launched. This isn't unusual as the commission is frequently targeted," he added.

Gravili said the Commission hadn't tracked down the source of the attacks and doesn't know if it was targeted to disrupt the summit plans.

The news come only weeks after France was hit by cyber attacks with the attackers targeting the Finance ministry and files related to the G20 summit in Cannes. The French government suspects the Chinese goverment but hasn't got any chance of getting conclusive evidence. µ