Montenegro's Fear of Russian hackers

Over the past two years, authorities in Montenegro have registered increases in cyber attacks, mostly against state institutions and the media.

On the eve of presidential elections on April 15th, this country is taking measures for another wave of attacks.

Montenegro and other countries in the Balkans fear Moscow's intervention will extend its influence even more there.

Officials in Podgorica fear their country is particularly vulnerable, as the winner of the presidential election is likely to lead Montenegro towards early membership negotiations with the European Union a move the Kremlin strongly opposes.

The European Union has recently drafted the new enlargement strategy that envisions Montenegro's membership in the bloc by 2025.

We are doing everything we can to be prepared in the best possible way”, says Milica Jankovovic, head of the Directorate for Electronic Management and Information Security at the Ministry of Public Administration in Montenegro.

We're running continuous monitoring and trying to get to know the attacks and predict them before the” occurs, Jankovic says of Radio Free Europe.

The rise in cyber attacks, which security analysts link to Russia, has coincided with the final phase of Montenegro's NATO membership negotiations in late 2016.

Jankovic said that in 2017 some 700 cyber attacks were recorded.

Montenegro's leaders also say Moscow has made efforts to intervene in the general elections in this country in 2016. Russian officials deny the accusations. But, Montenegrin authorities and the ruling parties say Russia has also sponsored a coup effort on the day of these elections.

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Political background “ulmet usually occur in organisation of states. The malicious programmes distributed to state services are the most massive weapons used by states to pursue their own political goals”, says Addis Balota, dean of the Faculty of Information Technology at the University of the Mediterranean in Podgorica.

Montenegro's government has not directly accused Russia of cyber attacks.

But technology security firms such as FirstEye and Trend Micro say they have seen evidence linking many attacks with APT28, a group of Russian hackers, also known as “Fancy Bear” This group, American intelligence services and private cyber security analysts have linked it to the Russian military intelligence service GRU.

“Fancy Bear” is accused of attempting election intervention and cyber attacks in NATO, the White House and several German government institutions.

The EU Agency for Network Security and Information has said that the Montenegrin infrastructure has been targeted by “Fancy Bear”

“Russia will likely continue to use cyber skills to undermine Montenegro's smooth integration into the coalition”, Tony Cole, vice president and chief of technology for the global government in Fireeye has said.

Montenegro became 29th member last year NATO. This step has been strongly criticised by Moscow and has been rejected by some Montenegrins who favour closer ties with Russia.

US Army General Curtis Scaparrotti, who oversees American military forces in Europe, has said that the area that concerns him today is the Balkans.

“Russia has jobs in the Balkans and I think that we have somehow removed our eyes from this area”, Scaparrotti said before a Senate Committee on March 8th.

This is a field in which we can have problems in the future”, he said.

The Kremlin has strongly denied any role in attacks on governments, media, or elections worldwide.

Although the campaign for the presidential election in Montenegro has not begun yet, analysts say if Moscow had a preferred candidate, it would be Mladen Bojanic.

Bojanic is former civil rights deputes and activists, who have opposed Montenegro's membership in NATO and has the support of the most powerful opposition coalition ♫ Democratic Front subject to pro-rus.

He is expected to run against former Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic.

Djukanovic, who has not officially declared the candidacy, has led Montenegro for more than a quarter of a century before withdrawing from politics, as his Democratic Party of Socialists has won the general elections in 2016. / REL