‘Massive’ Cyberattack on Government Services in Albania
Albania has come under a “massive cybernetic attack”. Albanians were unable to use scores of government services on Monday July 18, as the main servers went down, following what the authorities called 'a synchronised criminal attack from abroad'. The main servers of the National Agency for Information Society were all down after being hit. “Albania is under a massive cybernetic attack that has never happened before. This criminal cyber-attack was synchronized… from outside Albania,” the Council of Ministers said in a press release. The government recently closed desk services for the population and ordered mandatory use of its online services for everything from enrolling in school to obtaining an ISBN number for a new book at the National Library. However, several important services, such as online tax filing, are still working, as they use separate servers.
Reports later on suggests the attack to be of Iranian origin: "Research published by the threat intelligence firm Mandiant attributes the attack to Iran."