Prime Minister's Office has provided on Monday information about the cyber attack that affected the government websites and those of the online public service in Albania, causing the National Agency of ICT to shut down the systems in order to protect the data. 

In the statement to the media, it is said that the attack was detected at noon on Friday and the government systems were immediately isolated. 

In the meantime, the methods and techniques used in this attack, are the same used in Ukraine and some other Ransomware countries, by which the criminals seek to divert attention from the real goal, which is to attack critical systems and put them out of function. 

But according to Prime Minister's Office, the systems were not affected due to the quick response by the National Agency of ICT, in cooperation with Microsoft and the company responsible for cyber security of "Jones Group International". 

"At noon on Friday, a complex and large-scale cyber attack was detected through the cyber security monitoring platforms set up for government systems and infrastructures. Immediately, following response protocols, isolation of government infrastructures and systems was carried out to ensure data protection. 

The methods used by the malicious actors are similar to last year's attacks observed in international cyberspace. The techniques on which this attack relies are of the same nature as those used for a number of recent cyber attacks on government and private domains, such as in Ukraine, Germany, Lithuania, Malta, the Netherlands, Belgium and other countries. of the region. Only in Ukraine this year there have been 5 attacks with the same methodology, while in Germany the same type of attack has put wind energy production plants out of action. 

These methods are first disguised as Ransomware-type attacks, by which the criminals seek to divert attention from the real goal, which is to attack critical systems. The second step of this concentrated and sophisticated attack is the attack on the critical digital systems of the Albanian state to put them out of order. 

Fortunately, the rapid detection and response to these attacks meant that government systems remained untouched. Since the first moments of the detection of this attack, AKSHI has been closely cooperating with our Microsoft partners through their best cyber experts of Detection and Response to Incidents (DART team). Also, the experts of "Jones Group International" are here to deal with the situation and return it to normalcy as soon as possible. 

Government systems are all backed up and secure. At this moment we are verifying system by system that the latter are safe in every element, before they come back online and in full functionality. 

At the same time, all institutional actors are in full readiness and in constant communication for a deep and detailed investigation of this cybercrime. 

We assure all citizens that the information systems data of government services are safe and intact. 

There is no room for political controversy as long as we are facing a common enemy in this cyber war, so let's let the experts do their job so that any system that is brought back to work is functional and above all safe", underlined the PM's Office.