Romanian Government announces series of cyber attacks on public institution websites, including www.gov.ro and the website of Ministry of National Defense 

Pro-Russian hacker group Killnet claims responsibility for the cyber attack

ARTICOLE, ENGLISH • 29 APRILIE 2022 • ANA POPESCU 

Pro-Russian hacker group Killnet has claimed responsibility for cyber attacks on the websites of the government, the Ministry of Defense, the Border Police, and the Romanian Railways (CFR), Biziday reports.

In a message published on Telegram, Killnet says the attacks were carried out following statements by Senate President Marcel Ciolacu, who promised Ukrainian authorities „maximum assistance” in providing lethal weapons to Ukraine from Romania.

„Our official response: this will be the last thing the Romanian government does,” Killnet reports.

Marcel Ciolacu said yesterday that our country must have a legal framework and be ready with a political decision on the possibility of supplying arms to Ukraine: „I am firmly convinced that Romania is ready if we enter such a stage and take such a decision. Romania is ready, that’s why these trips were made, to offer more help,” Ciolacu said.

The government announces a series of cyber-attacks on websites of public institutions, including www.gov.ro.

„This morning, access to the websites gov.ro, mapn.ro and politiadefrontiera.ro, cfrcalatori.ro and the website of a financial institution was affected by a series of DDOS (distributed denial of service) cyber attacks.
IT specialists from government structures are working with experts from specialised institutions to restore access and identify the causes. Access to the www.gov.ro website has been restored,” a statement said.

The Ministry of Defence confirmed the cyber attack in a statement, saying the attack did not compromise the functioning of the website, only blocked users’ access to it.

„Dear colleagues, we confirm that a distributed denial of service (DDOS) cyber attack was triggered at 04.05 on the MApN website (www.mapn.ro).

The attack did not compromise the functioning of the institution’s website, but only blocked users’ access to it.

Please note that the MApN website does not contain sensitive or classified databases and the attack did not affect other MApN services and computer networks.

Specialists of the MApN’s Cyber Defence Command (CApC) are currently working to restore the functionality of the ministry’s website,” the statement said.


Edited for English by Ovidiu H.