AI is making cyberattacks easier as Estonia prepares for growing threats

AI is helping attackers find security flaws and write malicious programs, making cyberattacks faster and easier to carry out, experts told ERR’s AK.Nädal. Recent incidents involving temperature controls at a supermarket and a blood-storage facility have raised questions about the vulnerability of systems people rely on every day.

This week, a cyberattack on a refrigerated display case at a Selver store in Estonia caused its temperature to rise to 50 degrees. Similar incidents were reported in 11 European countries.

At a cold-storage facility in France, hackers this week gained access to rooms holding blood samples and plasma bags intended for transfusions and medicine production. The temperature rose from minus 30 degrees to 110 degrees.

Tanel Tammet, a computer science professor at Tallinn University of Technology, said AI can help attackers work much faster and more effectively, allowing people with less technical expertise to launch attacks. He described cybersecurity as being at a critical point, with defenders working to find and fix vulnerabilities and strengthen their systems.

Cybercriminals exploit both software flaws and human error. Common ways of gaining access to systems include phishing emails and weak passwords.

The North Estonia Regional Hospital faces hundreds of thousands of attempted cyberattacks each month, said its information security chief, Kristjan Hinn. Automated systems block most of them. Staff and analysts review 200 to 300 incidents a month, about 10 percent of which require action by the hospital, he said.

Hospital services rely heavily on connected digital systems, including laboratory and radiology systems. Care could continue using paper and pen if those systems failed, Hinn said, but the hospital would be far less efficient and unable to treat as many patients. Hospitals in Estonia have rehearsed a scenario in which all information systems are out of service for several days.

Mai Kraft, head of the Cybersecurity Centre at Estonia’s Information System Authority, said complete protection from cyber incidents is not possible. The country must be prepared both for incidents to occur and to recover quickly, she said. Cybersecurity is a shared responsibility: the state can set requirements, oversee and advise companies, while businesses must also invest in security and improve their systems.