Cyber attack on Romanian institution foiled by intelligence services

The National Centre Cyberint, under the coordination of the Romanian Intelligence Service (SRI), foiled a cyber attack attack on a Government institution from Romania, said the SRI, after news broke out that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MAE) was the target of a phishing attack.

According to the source, the operation was developed at the request of the Foreign Intelligence Service (SIE). SRI says that most probably, the attack was made by the entity associated with the cyber criminal group APT28/ Fancy Bear. It added that “daily there are thousands of cyber attacks on the institutions, entities and persons from virtual space and Romania is not an exception.”

A foreign publication wrote that a group of elite hackers with connections inside the Russian government pretended to be NATO representative to send a phishing e-mail thread to diplomatic organizations from Europe, including to the MAE.

The hackers imitated an e-mail address of NATO so that the message looked original.

“We estimate that the technological level of these attacks will register a significant growth in the following period, which will make necessary the implementation of a legislative framework to establish the attributions and responsibilities in this field at national level,” said the SRI.

On Friday, the SRI announced the launch of a national cyber security exercise which will be attended by 60 private and public institutions.