Following a potentially damaging attack by a hacker, the European Parliament has shut down its Wi-Fi until the network connection can be made more secure.
Though the Parliament’s connection was thought to be secure, experts are advising that the public Wi-Fi should be disconnected following the exposure of a few weak security practices. The hacking attack was led by a hacker who was able to retrieve email passwords from network users, a security breach which could lead to major problems and instability.
The man-in-the-middle attack occurred when the hacker captured information being transferred between private smartphone and the unsecured Wi-Fi network inside the Parliament. Several inboxes were compromised by the hacker and users were immediately advised to change their passwords whilst new security protocols were put into place.
As a precaution, the public Wi-Fi network in the parliament has been switched off until further notice. This alert comes only a week after a report that the Parliament was looking into possible vulnerabilities in MEP’s email accounts. Currently, it is thought that the hacker managed to take advantage of the unsecure network by creating a Wi-Fi connection that mimicked the EU Parliament’s actual system.
