The Court of Accounts of Moldova was hit by a hacker attack yesterday, which resulted in the destruction of its public databases and audits.
The Court of Accounts of Moldova carries out annual examinations of public financial institutions and government agencies.
According to a press release by the state news agency Moldpres, Moldova’s Court of Accounts confirmed its website was hacked, and various public data was destroyed.
The destruction of the public page of the Supreme Audit Institution was carried for the first time and would have a negative impact on society, the Court said:
“It is for the first time when the supreme audit institution faces such a situation. The destruction of the public page took place in the context of important audits and with impact in the society, at the stage of reporting and making public of the most significant audit missions planned in the institution’s work.”
The attack on the agency’s website led to it shutting down its online portals while it carries out an investigation. The agency stated that they are investigating if the attack was done for extortion, or it was carried out by hackers to disrupt the operations of the Court of Accounts:
“The needed investigations will identify whether the attack has been organized by hackers arbitrarily, on purposes of blackmailing, or it is about a planned order, in order to create impediments to the work of the country’s supreme audit institution,” said the Court of Accounts.
After the Court of Accounts’ website was compromised by a cyberattack, the attackers could have also distributed malware through it.
This incident coincides with the new Moldova president coming to power, who promised to her electorate to investigate cases of corruption, misappropriation of funds, and more. It is unknown if the goal of attackers was to clear up traces of some illegal activity or impede such investigations, but we can’t rule out such possibility.
The Court of Accounts works to re-establish the official electronic page of the court. They expect this process to last for a while, and all efforts will be made to make it functional as soon as possible.
“In this context, we inform you that the Court of Accounts will further use, for the making public of audit reports, the public accounts on social networks and we urge you to watch us on the aforementioned accounts,’’ reads a press release by the institution.
