The bomb threats sent to schools, kindergartens, courthouses and other public buildings in the country were distributed from compromised emails and servers outside Bulgaria. According to the Ministry of Interior, this time the technical traces lead to a country in the European Union. In the previous week, the messages were linked to a country in Latin America, bTV summarized.
Among the affected sites is the 91st kindergarten in Sofia. The director Tanya Kecheva filed a report on 112, notified the Sofia Municipality and the regional administration. About 10 minutes later, employees of the Fifth Regional Department arrived on site.
The children were taken out, and the building was checked inside and out. Nothing unusual was found during the inspection. About 200 children were taken from their parents within 30-40 minutes.
“We have a protocol for action upon receipt of such emails, it says that any threat is considered real“, said Kecheva. According to the procedure, access to the building is suspended for 24 hours, and the kindergarten must open at 11:00.
“There is a standard style“
Cyber expert Stanislav Atanasov defined the messages as part of a recurring pattern. “These are standard emails with threats that are being sent. There is a standard style“, he told bTV.
According to him, such messages are usually intended to instill panic. Atanasov assumes that the name specified in the specific email may have been invented or taken from another source. According to him, an old list of addresses of schools and kindergartens was probably used.
The expert indicated that the sending could have been done via a compromised email, an infected computer or an automated system. “This could be a valid email that was compromised, that has the password stolen. This could be an infected computer that has the ability to send emails. It could be many things“, explained Atanasov.
He specified that even if the device from which the message was sent is identified, this does not automatically mean that its author has been identified. The Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Directorate for the Prevention of Corruption and Corruption continue to work on the signals together with partner services.
Sources: btvnovinite.bg