Moldova's President Maia Sandu is convening a meeting of the Security Council due to the large-scale cyberattack against state digital services. The meeting will be held in the coming days, and the aim is to assess the consequences of the hacking and identify countermeasures, NewsMaker reported.
The attack took place between October 19 and 23. According to preliminary data, hackers tried to access information related to approximately 1 million IDNP identification numbers. About 750,000 of them may have been affected by unauthorized extraction of personal data. The exact scope of the incident is still being clarified.
“States need common access to protection tools and expertise to effectively counter attacks generated and directed by neural networks“, Sandu said during an online meeting dedicated to the control of the most advanced artificial intelligence models. It was attended by leaders and ministers from more than 30 countries.
Dozens of government systems affected
The Moldovan Agency for e-Government reported that after the incident was detected, 82 digital services were checked, and more than 30 information systems and administrative panels were temporarily disabled as a precautionary measure. On October 23, unauthorized data extraction was stopped.
According to the agency, a new attempt to access several government services was blocked on October 25. On October 27, new attempts to extract data were registered, but they were unsuccessful. Some of the services were restored after the vulnerabilities were fixed and additional checks were carried out.
The investigation is being carried out by the Moldovan structures for cybersecurity, e-government, state security and police. Work is underway to establish the source of the attack, the method of penetration and the actual volume of information extracted.
Fraud warning
Moldovan authorities warn that personal data can be used in telephone scams and phishing attacks. Perpetrators can pose as employees of state institutions or banks and use the name and identification number of the citizen to gain trust.
Sandu stressed the need for closer international cooperation in cybersecurity. The upcoming meeting of the Security Council should determine the consequences of the attack and the next measures of the Moldovan authorities.
Sources: ukrinform.ua, newsmaker.md