Government websites in Romania experienced DDOS attacks on Friday, although officials said the attacks were largely ‘symbolic’ and could be dealt with by the country’s cyber security institutions.
A person in front of a computer screen in Moers, Germany, January 4, 2019 (reissued May 3 2019). Photo: EPA-EFE/Sascha Steinbach
Romania’s government announced a series of cyberattacks on websites of key public institutions, including the government and the Defence Ministry, on Friday.
“This morning, accessing the sites gov.ro, mapn.ro and politiadefrontiera.ro [Border Police], cfrcalatori.ro [National RailRoads] and the financial institution’s websites were affected by a series DDOS cyber attacks,” a press release said.
The government said IT specialists were working with experts from specialized institutions to restore access and identify causes.
The Defence Ministry confirmed the cyberattacks, insisting that the attack did not compromise the website’s functioning, only blocked users’ access to it.
The Defence Ministry’s website does not contain sensitive or classified databases, and the attack did not affect other services and computer networks of the ministry.
The Defence Minister, Vasile Dincu, declared that the cyber attack was “a symbolic attack”, not affecting databases or the command and control system.
“Such attacks exist on government sites even without an ongoing war. Our cyber security divisions are ready. Episodes like this are also from amateurs. Some are institutionally orchestrated,” Dincu said.
At the same time, on Friday, hackers attacked several news websites in the Czech Republic, also with DDoS type cyberattacks. As a result, the public website of Czech Television, CT24, and Czech Radio’s news server iRozhlas.cz were inaccessible for several hours.
Earlier this week, the Russian hacker group Killnet threatened to attack the Czech media. The group was previously responsible for similar cyberattacks.
Last week, hackers attacked the websites of the Czech Interior Ministry, including the police and the firefighter’s department. The Czech government website, the Czech National Railroads and the National Agency for Cyber and Information Security, NÚKIB, were also attacked, but no data was leaked.
Source link: balkaninsight.com
