TIRANA, September 20 /ATA/ Tirana’s Prosecutor’s Office has launched since September 10 investigation into the illegal interception of computer data, interference with computer data, interference with computer systems and misuse of equipment, as stipulated in the Criminal Code.
The object of investigation is the cyber attack against the National Agency of Information Society which includes all the official government websites in the Republic of Albania.
“Also, on September 9, another cyber attack was carried out on the equipment and systems that are administered and managed by the Ministry of Interior in Albania. Since these two actions were carried out with the same typology and the cyber attack came from the same source, they are being investigated in a single case. Both at the moment of the first attack and at the moment of the attack on the TIMS system, the Prosecutor’s Office was present at every moment in the performance of urgent actions, operating with the urgent decision-making dictated by the dynamics of the actions. The prosecutors managed to identify two different actors based outside the territory of the Republic of Albania. By decision of the Prosecutor’s Office at the Court of First Instance in Tirana, there was ordered sequestration of these accounts in two different social networks and as a result of this decision, the relevant companies reacted by closing access to these accounts. As a result of the lack of access, the masterminds of the cyber attack opened another page, which was used to distribute various messages related to the attack carried out or the publication of the data that was stolen”, announced the prosecution.
Also, it is reported that the Prosecutor’s Office, in exercising its powers and in close cooperation with all law enforcement agencies and partners assisting the Albanian authorities, has carried out a series of investigative actions, including sending requests for legal assistance to several countries.
Likewise, there have been identified various data necessary for the investigation. The prosecutors are working on them in close cooperation with partners. Recently published data in terms of classified police information and data or information and data obtained from classified partners, information on criminal proceedings, etc., have been considered by the Prosecutor’s Office as evidence that has a direct link to criminal offenses in the investigation and as actions that seriously affect the activity of state institutions as well as national security or relations between citizens. The posting of these secret data not only violates the privacy of each individual, violates the National Security of the Republic of Albania, but they are also an investigative secret within the investigations undertaken by the prosecuting body. For this reason, due to the importance, purposes and authors in whose service this criminal act is taking place, due to the legal obligation to protect the data of each individual as well as the National Security of the Republic of Albania and consequently due to urgency and necessity for taking an immediate decision by the Prosecutor, it was decided: Seizure of the published data and those that will be published in the future from the sites subject to the investigation of the criminal proceedings and in the following the blocking of the publication of any type of information from the written, audio-visual, online media”, the report stated./p.s./
