Luxembourg Socialist Workers' Party MP Alex Bodry posed the parliamentary question on Luxembourg's cyber security after the European commission identified a risk of manipulation through the spread of false information during the election cycle, in particular ahead of the European elections on 26 May 2019.
The government assured Bodry that all necessary precautions are being taken by the EU as well as by Luxembourg to prevent foreign powers from influencing the outcome of the election.
An official of the legal department of the state ministry is representing the Grand Duchy in a European task force ahead of the EU elections. Each EU member state is represented in this group and it discusses how to improve cooperation during elections, how to improve internet transparency, online protection against cyber attacks and the fight against false information in politics. The network works in an advisory capacity only, and it is up to the individual member states to decide whether or not to implement new regulations on the basis of the group's findings.
The goal is to ward off potential threats to national and European elections, for example by clearly marking political ads.
While Luxembourg is a tiny country, the treat of illicit influence ahead of the European elections, disinformation campaigns, and possible cyber attacks should not be underestimated.
Luxembourg's ministries are preparing for the eventuality of these threats by identifying possible weak points. But in their answer, the state ministry and the ministry of justice pointed out that Luxembourg has the necessary organisational and technical means to ward off and overcome these dangers.
The dangers posed by groups of online hackers is omnipresent in this day and age. Groups such as "Bear", "Chollima", "Panda" and "Kitten" are serious national security threats, backed by foreign secret services, armies and governments.
German newspaper "Die Zeit" cited a report by the US security firm CrowdStrike, which listed the most prolific hackers throughout the world. The so-called "bears" — Russian hackers backed by two secret services — made the top spot. North Korea's ''Chollima'' comes in second place in this listing, while China's "pandas" come in third place.
For their report, CrowdStrike analysed about 30,000 cyber attacks from 116 hacker groups worldwide. Russian cyber attacks are the most common.
