Security News > 2022 > July > Spain arrests suspected hackers who sabotaged radiation alert system
The Spanish police have announced the arrest of two hackers believed to be responsible for cyberattacks on the country's radioactivity alert network, which took place between March and June 2021.
"A year of investigations and an exhaustive technical police analysis of all the communications of the sabotaged sensors, as well as the data related to the intrusion in the computer system whose origin could be located in the public use network of a well-known establishment of hospitality in the center of Madrid, allowed to identify the authors of the cyberattack." - Policia National.
"In the same operation, carried out in Madrid and San Agustín de Guadalix, two homes and one company were searched, under the protection of two orders of the Investigating Court No. 39 of Madrid; finding numerous computer and communications devices related to the facts investigated," reads the police's announcement.
The role of the RAR system is to detect sudden rises in radioactivity levels and raise the alarm to help the authorities take protection measures, detect, and remediate the problem.
RAR comprises 800 gamma radiation sensors deployed at specific points in the country, each connected via a telephone line to the control center at the DGPCE headquarters.
The cyberattack prevented 300 of these sensors from transmitting their readings back to the center, introducing a severe risk of the state not responding immediately to events of excessive radiation.