More details should be given about Nordea’s denial of service attacks, says security expert Petteri Järvinen

Nordic should shed more light on what the heck is happening in frequent online attacks. That’s what a security expert says Petteri Järvinen.

The bank’s services got stuck last time on Friday nightand it’s just another sad epistle to continue the line autumn problems.

“All the technical details, from which something could be deduced, are never told. Let’s appeal to information security, trade secrets or something else,” says Järvinen.

He rejects Nordea’s rhetoric, where responsibility is shifted outside the group. Denial of service attacks have reportedly harnessed ordinary computers for hostile activities.

“Now, in a way, home users are being blamed and it is being said that these attacks come at least partly through them. Should tell the details that how this attack happens and what we users have to do? Are these home routers or washing machines?”

Nordea message earlier in October “about the importance of protecting household appliances”. New machines, from refrigerators to washing machines, can be connected to the network, and through that there is a risk that intruders can gain access to them.

Would it disclosure of technical data of attacks risk?

“I don’t see that it would be a harmful thing from the point of view of Nordea’s information security, because whoever is doing this attack can already see that it works.”

There is also a scary scenario: what if Nordea is in the alley itself.

“If this was an armed conflict or migrants were brought to the border, then much more would be said. If you really don’t know anything, that’s also terribly worrying.”

Typically, denial of service attacks have been prevented by geoblocking. Then the traffic coming from a certain country or direction is completely stopped.

Now the exception is that the disturbing traffic comes from within the Nordic countries. The bank must have difficulty deciding who is a prospective customer and who is not.

“The fundamental problem here, too, is once again that we don’t know what this attack traffic is like.”

If own home computer has ended up being a cash register for hostile parties, it can be difficult to detect.

”[Yksittäisestä koneesta] the traffic is not huge, but it is based on the large number of addresses to be bombed.”

A technically skilled home user can monitor outgoing traffic, but few know how or want to do such a thing.

“Nowadays, broadband and machines are so fast that you can use them to bomb, even with a large volume, without the person actually noticing it.”

Naturally, such “hijackings” can be prevented with good information security and device updates.

Friday night the timing of the denial of service attack was peculiar in itself, as banks are usually tried to be congested during business hours.

As you know, it is not explained by the time zone, as the transnational bank’s operating areas in the Nordic countries are only one hour behind Finland.

Friday night is traditionally a time of a different kind of pain: that’s when, according to Järvinen, data breaches and online extortion happen, when companies’ IT people go free.

Nordic the problems sound worrying, but the online bank works flawlessly most of the time.

“This is easily forgotten. We imagine that the ability of criminals to attack will improve. Vice versa. Something is being tried all the time, but an extremely small percentage of anything gets through. It’s the positive news that doesn’t make headlines in the media,” says Järvinen.

The criminals have not been able to feast on the money. Now it’s as if the door of the bank branch is being hacked, but the vault is still locked.

“Banks have not been robbed, that must be remembered.”