Citizen data is safe, no information has been overwritten and data backups are available. According to government officials who addressed the situation after the cyber-attack on the cadastre systems at an emergency meeting of the National Security Council on Friday.
The cadastre has been down for five days following a massive attack by hackers from abroad. The real estate market has come to a standstill and several services are still not working.
This cyber-attack was the biggest in the history of the independent Slovakia stated Agriculture Minister Richard Takac (Smer-SD) following a special meeting of the Security Council on Friday. According to him, it was aimed primarily at the infrastructure, which then made it impossible for the individual offices to function, not at the data itself. As he informed, the office has all its data backed up and that no one will lose their property.
According to Interior Minister Matus Sutaj Estok (Hlas-SD), the opposition spread alarming news about possible fraud with land-registry data following the cyber-attack. Sutaj Estok claims that the opposition's statements will be dealt with by the law-enforcement authorities.
"These days, the same attack was carried out in the Russian Federation with the indications we have from the intelligence services, with the same perpetrator," stated the Interior Minister. Prime Minister Robert Fico subsequently repeated the same suspicions at a meeting of the parliament's European Affairs Committee where he was summoned to explain explaining his recent talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
According to live.sk, the hackers are demanding a seven-figure dollar amount to restore access to the data. The site warned that the state does not have comprehensive data backups, and therefore, quick data recovery may be problematic. After a few days, the silence was broken by the cadastre's management, which assures that citizens' sensitive data is safe.
The information system is used by land registry departments of district offices which have been temporarily closed as a precaution. The Interior Ministry said that it bears no responsibility for the UGKK's operation.
In the next few days, the cadastral offices are to be gradually restored to operation and eventually the central platform, which was the target of the hacking attack, will be restored as well.
Source: STVR, TASR, SME
