Number of Cyberattacks on EU Institutions Rose by 20% in 2016 – Reports

The number of cyberattacks on the servers of the European Commission rose by 20 percent in the past year against 2015 numbers, according to Financial Times.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — There were 110 separate attempts to hack the EU servers in 2016, the Financial Times reported on Sunday, adding that the EU commission did not comment on the suspected source of the attacks.

"It’s clear that many institutions across Europe and more widely, and that includes the European Commission, are subject to a continuously increasing number of cyberattacks from different sources," EU security commissioner Sir Julian King said as cited by the media, adding that the threats are persistent, aggressive and potentially destructive.

It comes as on January 6, the US Intelligence Community released a report on the alleged Russia's hacking saying it had "high confidence" Moscow attempted to meddle in the 2016 US presidential election.

Russian officials have repeatedly denied the US allegations calling them absurd and characterizing them as an attempt to divert public opinion from revelations of corruption as well as other pressing domestic issues.