The warning from ENISA executive director Juhan Lepassaar follows commercial cyber disruptions that struck European supermarkets across at least 12 nations in October and November. In France, unauthorized temperature shifts on October 11 and 12 forced hundreds of stores to throw away massive amounts of perishable groceries. France pointed to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as the culprit behind the supermarket breaches. In response to mounting foreign risks, the EU plans to double ENISA's size and resources while implementing stricter cyber regulations next year.
Key points
State-aligned cyber actors from Iran, Russia, China, and North Korea are actively targeti…: State-aligned cyber actors from Iran, Russia, China, and North Korea are actively targeting European corporate and public infrastructure.
Upcoming European Union regulations set to take effect next year will impose stricter cyb…: Upcoming European Union regulations set to take effect next year will impose stricter cybersecurity standards on connected products.
The European Union intends to double the operational size and resources of cybersecurity…: The European Union intends to double the operational size and resources of cybersecurity agency ENISA to combat escalating threats.
Sources checked by our analysis pipeline: 1
Brussels: After recent attacks on supermarket fridges, home appliances could be next, the EU's cyber chief told AFP on Tuesday, as he urged Europe to invest more to counter growing cyber threats.
Supermarkets in at least 12 European countries were hit by cyberattacks in October and November, with France the worst affected.
"Security should not and cannot be an afterthought," Juhan Lepassaar, executive director of the EU's cybersecurity agency ENISA, said.
"Today it was fridges, tomorrow it could be routers, the day after tomorrow it could be home appliances and so forth."
Lepassaar spoke to AFP in Brussels where he unveiled the Athens-based agency's latest biennial report on the state of the EU's cybersecurity.
"All incidents can be avoided, but the question is, are we ready to invest to make it happen? Cybersecurity is not cheap," he said, calling on manufacturers to make products that are secure "by design".
Cybersecurity is crucial, Lepassaar said, because "every single service that you are depending on as a citizen, as a human being, contains a layer whereby there is a digital element in…
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