Rise of Cybersecurity Threats Triggered by Culture of Gov't Secrecy

The culture of keeping secrets perpetuated by governmental structures and security agencies has always been the main reason behind the emergence and worldwide spread of cyberattacks, spokesman of the French Pirate Party Thomas Watanabe-Vermorel told Sputnik on Tuesday, referring to the recent ransomware attack that hit some 150 countries.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Watanabe-Vermorel pointed out that the Pirate Party called for full transparency so that the "protection of everyone [would] really [be] in the hands of everyone," rather than have its implementation be dependent upon states and companies.

"The secret is always a weakness. Those who create a system of secrecy, put themselves in a vulnerable position in relation to those who wants to reveal this secret… Transparency is the only way to ensure security. The whole range of malicious programs do not work since the moment when secrets are not kept anymore," Watanabe-Vermorel said.

The party member said that many hackers had been checking their skills by searching for breaches in systems and then reporting said breaches to the relevant organizations. This practice, however, did not receive sufficient support, as hackers were considered criminals.

Watanabe-Vermorel added that the general public was not protected from the governments, which receive large quantities of information on their citizens, stressing that this was another argument for making all information open.

Since Friday, 200,000 computers across 150 countries were hit by ransomware cyberattacks, according to the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation (Europol).

A malicious software called WannaCry affected, among other institutions and organizations, the UK public health system NHS, the German state rail company Deutsche Bahn, the Russian Interior Ministry and banks. The virus blocked computers with messages flashing on the screen demanding money to remove the restriction.