Unclear when land registry data can be restored

Unclear when land registry data can be restored

Neither the Geodesy, Cartography, and Cadastre Office (UGKK) nor the National Security Bureau (NBU) can currently say when the land-registry data will be restored, opposition representatives stated on Tuesday following an informal discussion with UGKK chairperson Juraj Celler and NBU head Roman Konecny.

The MPs were originally due to hold a discussion at the parliamentary committee for supervising NBU activities, but it didn't reach a quorum as coalition members were absent.

"The good news is that UGKK has multiple backups, it has four backups, only one of which was attacked and compromised, so simply by comparing these databases it can be guaranteed that functional data will be restored," said MP Jan Horecky (KDH), adding that the hackers also demanded a ransom of €12 million for unlocking the data, which the state didn't pay.

MP Jan Hargas (PS) added that there is currently no guarantee that citizens' non-public data has not been misused. He also stated that the latest backups are as of Friday, January 3 and therefore may not be complete, as the attack took place on January 5.

Head of the House committee for supervising the NBU activities Roman Mikulec ('Slovakia', 'Za ludi', KU) pointed out that the state can't yet say who is behind the cyber-attack. "We can't yet say who carried out the attack, we can't yet say in what way the attack took place exactly or through what location," he said.

SaS continues to demand the ouster of UGKK chairman Celler. "The attack happened on the fifth [of January], in the morning, and on the seventh [of January] he came to work. You know, if my office disappeared, I'd be able to come from Sydney in 48 hours," said MP Alojz Hlina (SaS). Celler, who attended the meeting, said he didn't see any reasons for his resignation. "I did what I had to do," he told reporters after the meeting with the MPs.

The offices of the land-registry departments have been temporarily closed in recent days due to a large-scale cyber-attack from abroad. It affected the UGKK information system, which is used by the land-registry departments of district offices.

KDH plans to initiate a special emergency session of the House Committee for Agriculture and the Environment over the aftermath of the hacker attack on the IT systems according to party spokesperson Lenka Kovar.

"I am initiating a special emergency session because there are suspicions of tampering with the Cadastre's real estate system. The paralysing of the Cadastre in the wake of the hacker attack has impacted a great many individuals, businesses and institutions," said committee member Marian Caucik (KDH), who wants Agriculture Minister Richard Takac (Smer-SD), head of UGKK Juraj Celler and director of the National Security Authority (NBU) Roman Konecny to be summoned to the session.


Source: TASR

Ben Pascoe, Photo: TASR

Živé vysielanie ??:??

Práve vysielame