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Iranian cyber attack
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Albanian President Holds Meeting with NSC Over Iran Cyber Attacks Led by HomeLand Justice

 

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.
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Albanian Hacker CISA CISA & FBI cyber attack Cyber Attacks Government

HomeLand Justice: Government of Albania attacked by Iranian Cyber Threat Actors

 

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) have issued a joint Cybersecurity advisory on the recent cyber operations held by the Iranian state cyber actors against the Government of Albania in July and September. 

The advisory provides a detailed timeline pertaining to activities that were detected, from the initial software access to the execution of encryption and wiper attacks. The information also included the files that the actors used for the attacks. 
 
The hackers, referred to as HomeLand Justice, who are state-sponsored Iranian advanced persistent threat (ATP) actors, attempted to paralyse public services, delete and steal governmental data, and disrupted the government’s websites and services, wreaking havoc and panic on the state.  
 
As per the agencies, the threat actors had the access to the Albanian government servers for 14 months before executing the cyber attacks that included the execution of encryption and wiper attacks. 
 
A series of cyberattacks was then launched by the threat actors, on July 17th, 2022, after conducting lateral movements, network reconnaissance, and credential harvesting from the Albanian government network, leaving an anti-Mujahideen E- Khalq (MEK) messages on the desktops.  
 
After the network defenders detected and begin responding to the ransomware activities, HomeLand Justice employed a new family ransomware ROADSWEEP, along with a variant of wiper malware, ZEROCLEAR. 
 
While claiming to have carried out these cyber attacks, on July 23rd, HomeLand Justice took to social media, demonstrating a repeated pattern of advertising the Albanian Government about the leaks, and posting polls asking the viewers to select the information they want to be leaked. It was followed by the release of information in a .zip file or video of a screen recording with the documents. 
 
The cyber actors launched another thread of cyberattacks in September against the Albanian government, using similar TTPs and malware as the attacks made in July. The attacks were possibly done in retaliation for public attribution of the previous attack and severed diplomatic ties between the Albanian and Iranian governments. 
 
Although Albania lacks an efficient cyber defense, it is a member of NATO which can be confirmed by Appathurai's statement, “You can be sure of NATO’s continued political and practical support.” Thus, apparently, NATO will be supporting Albania with the incident to deal with immediate challenges and long-term requirements.
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