TIRANA, September 22/ATA/ Deputy Prime Minister Belinda Balluku, at the same time Minister of Infrastructure and Energy, stated today that a good part of the Balkans is under cyber attacks and the fact that most of the countries under attack are NATO members speaks of an important moment.
“Albania is under attack from another country, which has greater financial opportunities and technological capacities than us”, said Balluku during her speech in the Assembly.
“The attack was aimed at erasing all data. No data was deleted, despite the fact that the attack was well- organized. We welcome your cooperation at this moment, which was offered by the Democratic Party MP Ervin Salianji. We ask the opposition not to make use of this moment. Albania is under a cyber attack that today is called a war. The opposition should not use it for abuses and narrative attacks”, said Balluku.
Balluku also requested the cooperation of the opposition to review some of the legal acts regarding cyber protection.
“Soon we will come with by-laws to the parliamentary committees and we would like to see your cooperation in reality”, said Balluku.
Balluku emphasized that Albania has invested in the digitization of services, but was not prepared for attacks of this level.
“Digitalization and cyber security are two different sectors that run in parallel; one aims at development, the other at protection, the protection that every country needs nowadays. We do not have advanced systems. We were not prepared for attacks of this level, organized and sponsored by another state. Yes, we have been under hacker attacks, amateur or professional, and we have repelled them. It was impossible for us to withstand the attack from 4 well-organized sources”, said the deputy prime minister in the Assembly.
Balluku emphasized that the government turned to the FBI to conduct an analysis of the attack.
“The FBI came to Tirana and did the entire analysis. Microsoft brought its teams and today they are here following the situation step by step, from analysis to strategy formulation, to help us how we should proceed in the future”, she said.
On the other hand, Balluku also responded to the opposition’s accusations of spending funds for lobbying.
According to her, lobbying is carried out by the opposition and that her statements in the Assembly are made to send messages to each other.
“You said that we spend money on lobbying. You know very well that we do not lobby and we are not good at it. Have discussions and give messages related to your family. Say messages to each other. We have not spent money nor will we spend money on lobbying. We are not good at lobbying, you keep doing it,” she said. /j.p/p.s./
