In the wake of the ongoing cyber attacks led by hackers group HomeLand Justice, the Albanian President Bajram Begaj recently held a meeting with the National Security Council (NSC) in the Albanian capital, Tirana on 10th October, Monday. The meeting, attended by senior government officials was conducted in order to discuss the issue of persistent cyberattacks, carried out against state infrastructure by Iran.
The meeting was attended by Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama, Prosecutor General Olsjan Çela, Director General of Police Muhamet Rrumbullaku, Chairman of the Security Commission Nasip Naço, and senior intelligence officials.
The threat actors referred to as HomeLand Justice is a hacker group sponsored by the Iranian government’s advanced persistent threat (ATP) actors. The hackers attempted to paralyse public services, and delete and steal governmental data, disrupting the government’s websites and services, which created a nuisance in the state.
Earlier this year, in July, HomeLand Justice took to social media, demonstrating the attack pattern of advertising the Albanian Government about the leaks, and posting polls asking the viewers to select the hacked information they want to be published.
A similar attack was launched in September against the Albanian government, possibly instigated in retaliation for public attribution of the previous attacks, it severed diplomatic ties between the governments of Iran and Albania.
Over the weekend, threat actors published the hacked data pertaining to employees of the State Police on the Telegram channel operated by Homeland Justice. The leaked data involved names, personal information and photographs, ID numbers, age, name, and photo.
Although not much information has been provided about the meeting that lasted for two hours, Finance Minister Delina Ibrahimaj briefed about the meeting in an unrelated press conference.
“In fact, it is the role of the president to call the national security committee on various issues. We discussed the current issues of cyber attacks. Each institution reported on the measures taken, on the level of impact and on the measures that will be taken in the future to cope with the situation”, stated Delina.
The National Security Council was last addressed on 14th February 2022 by former president Ilir Meta in regard to Russia-Ukraine tensions.
