Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama said that his country already has one of the best cyber defenses in NATO and that it manages to repel one cyber attack every three minutes, Euronews Albania reported, BTA reported.
Rama said this today in the Albanian capital Tirana, where the third NATO Cyber Defense Conference is taking place. The conference is attended by delegations from the 32 member states of the alliance.
During his speech, the Albanian Prime Minister recalled that his country was the subject of a severe cyberattack by Iran several years ago, which was directed against Albania's digital infrastructure.
Albania broke off diplomatic relations with Iran in 2022 after a cyberattack that temporarily shut down a number of websites and digital services of the Albanian state administration. At the time, the Albanian Prime Minister announced that a thorough investigation had provided irrefutable evidence that one of the cyberattacks that hit the country in 2022 was orchestrated and sponsored by Iran.
The cyberattack is believed to have been in retaliation for Albania providing sanctuary to members of the Iranian opposition group “Mujahideen-e Khalq“, better known by the acronym MEK. About 3,000 of its members live in the “Ashraf 3“ camp in the town of Manza, which is located 30 km west of the Albanian capital Tirana.
The Albanian government and international technology companies have accused the Iranian Foreign Ministry of the cyberattack, the Associated Press recalls. The Iranian Foreign Ministry denied being behind it and pointed out that Iran has been the victim of cyberattacks by the Mujahideen.
"We survived this (the cyberattack a few years ago) and I am proud to tell you that today we have one of the best cyber defense walls among NATO countries. (...) Today we face one cyberattack every three minutes, but we manage to repel them. Last year we tracked a total of 48 cyberattacks, but they did not cause any significant damage," Rama said today.