Spain’s Higher Council for Scientific Research experiences a ransomware attack

On Tuesday 2nd of August 2022, Spain’s Higher Council for Scientific Research (CSIC) experienced a ransomware attack on Saturday 16th and Sunday 17th of July 2022 which resulted in multiple centers being cut off from the Council’s network in an attempt to stop the spread of the ransomware. The incident was detected on Monday 18th of July 2022 and the council initiated the response protocol that has been set out by the Cybersecurity Operations Center (COCS) and the National Cryptologic Center (CCN).

At this current time, experts who have been investigating the attack have determined that the origin of the cyberattack was from Russia and there has been no indication that any sensitive or confidential information was stolen during the incident yet. At the time of writing, the CSIC has confirmed that over a quarter of the CSIC centers already restored their connections to the network and in the next few days, the rest of the centers will be reconnected to the network. No threat actors have claimed responsibility for the attack yet.