published on Tuesday, November 8, 2005

SARA contributes to arrest of hackers

SARA is involved in the Dutch hacking case, an affair that is getting a lot of attention in the media. On November 8, newspaper de Volkskrant published an article in which is mentioned that the hackers have also tried to break into some SARA systems. Recently these persons were arrested by the Nationale Recherche (national crime investigators).

The attack on SARA was a serious effort to hack some of SARA's peripheral systems with an illegal externally acquired, old password. Thanks to security measures of the SARA network, such as periodical password changes, strict staff exit procedures, and a secured, layered infrastructure, the hackers did not get very far.

In contrast with the publication in de Volkskrant, SARA is convinced that the hackers did get access to secured systems, data storage, supercomputers, or the internal SARA network. Further investigation of SARA-CERT (Computer Emergency Response Team) and independent third parties reveals that the integrity of the security of the internal network and the systems of SARA customers was not compromized.

After the discovery of this hack attack by the CERT organization, analysis by SARA in cooperation with CERT teams of other organizations has resulted in concrete information about the hackers. SARA has reported the incident to the police, and offered further assistance to the investigations. This resulted in the creation of a large national investigation team in which also the National High Tech Crime Center (NHTCC) is involved. The team has discovered serious facts about the hackers and arrested them.

SARA will not publish any details on this affair until the investigations have been completed.