IP addresses from around six countries, some of them “exotic,” were used in the October cyberattack on Moldova’s government systems, according to Lilian Carp. Speaking after parliamentary hearings on November 4, the chair of the parliamentary Committee on National Security and Public Order said that two audits would be carried out to examine the security breaches, how the attack was orchestrated and who was behind it.
The PAS MP explained that the same person’s data could have been accessed multiple times across different platforms. According to him, some of these platforms are based in the EU, while others are as far afield as Oceania, newsmaker.md reports. Prosecutors are set to determine who bought the data, while the involvement of foreign state actors remains a possibility.
He explained that when attacks are carried out by non-state groups, hackers typically claim responsibility or put the data up for sale on the darknet. In this case, neither happened.
The chair of the parliamentary Committee on National Security and Public Order criticized the authorities’ response during the four days in which citizens’ personal data was compromised. Carp said that, even after the hearings, he had received no answer as to why the institutions had failed to detect the unusual surge in traffic in time.
Between October 19 and 23, the personal data of around 750,000 Moldovans was compromised by hackers in a massive attack on the government’s digital infrastructure.