In the past few days, the region has once again been targeted by cyber attackers. After the Government of Montenegro, two media houses in Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as Sarajevogas, were attacked.
The attacks were reported to the police and an investigation is underway, and the Intelligence and Security Agency called on institutions and the private sector to perform security checks and take preventive protection measures.
Dnevni Avaz informed its readers that their Facebook pages were hacked on September 1st. The case was reported to the MIA of Sarajevo Canton. The Cantonal Prosecutor’s Office says that they have already filed a case. A cyber attack also happened to Radio-television Herceg Bosna on September 1 and 2. Unknown perpetrators “invaded” their IT system and tried to use malicious software to destroy all the materials that this media company has. The damage, however, is enormous.
“Unfortunately, we found that there are over 100,000 files, both working materials and archives. They remained unrecoverable due to the malicious software that encrypted these data. Hackers were looking for some code to recover those documents, but that was a false hope “We have reported the attack to the Ministry of Interior of the HNC and the crime department. On Monday, we will report it to the Federal Police and State Investigators and Security Agency,” says Darko Smiljanić, v. d. technical manager of RTV HB.
The Intelligence and Security Agency of Bosnia and Herzegovina also warned of the danger of hacker attacks. They say that all attempts at illegal actions in cyberspace are being monitored in order to uncover the perpetrators and their motives.
“We advise all individuals and organizations to carry out a security assessment of information and communication systems and apply security measures as quickly as possible in order to proactively prevent possible attempts at cyber attacks in Bosnia and Herzegovina,” stated the SIPA.
A similar situation was reported by Sarajevogas. They confirmed that the attack took place, but that, fortunately, all the data was saved. Due to the ongoing investigation, they could not provide more details.
The OHR and the OSCE Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina responded to the information about hacker attacks on Avaz.
“Hacking of websites and profiles on social networks, as well as blocking access to media content, is a violation of the right to freedom of expression and the right to freedom of access to information of public importance,” said the OSCE Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Bosnia and Herzegovina can hardly cope with more serious hacker attacks, experts say. Apart from fragmentation and the fact that in our country this problem is dealt with by lower levels of government, a big problem is the lack of experts in this field.
“Of course, we have experts who work for the world’s largest companies, but this is also part of the problem, because it is difficult to get exceptional experts to work for state agencies. Unlike most other professions, for the IT profession, the civil service is not attractive at all,” points out Arben Murtezić, a cyber security expert.
Bosnia and Herzegovina is the only country in the region that does not have a cyber security strategy. An additional problem is that the computer underground has advanced so much that a serious attack can be carried out with little money and relatively cheap equipment. Our country cannot prevent such situations at the moment, BHRT writes.
