Kosovo cyber attacks coming from Russia, Serbia, Bosnia and Macedonia

Responsible authorities say Kosovo has and secures a safe environment of cyberspace, downplaying and preventing cyber threats in co-operation with local and international partners.

Abdulselim Shkodra, deputy minister of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, told Radio Free Europe, that as well as many different countries, Kosovo is exposed to various cyber attacks.

“In the event of attempts on an eventual attack on the country's institutions and citizens' systems, measures will be taken, which are necessary, such as those preventative and rapid recovery, in case of confronting those attacks”, Shkodra said.

Cyberattack is a criminal act that develops on the communications network, misusing the system and computer data. With such an attack, interior affairs ministry officials said Kosovo was confronted at the end of last year, when one of Kosovo's institutions was attacked by Serbian hackers.

Deputy Prime Minister Shkodra stressed that Kosovo stands best in the region in terms of this area, since, as he said, the country has the national strategy for cyber security, as well as the National Council for Strategy Implementation. Shkodra said that Kosovo or its institutions, based on estimates, may have had IP attacks [the Internet protocol of a system] the addresses of states that do not want good for Kosovo.

“We have been punished last year by IPs that have come from non-friendly countries in Kosovo, such as our northern neighbour Serbia, one of the IPs that were attacked by the country's institutions was from the Russian Federation, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and one of the countries of the Macedonia region. The same are intended to enter into the country's institutions' computer systems, but so far they have successfully been deterred”, Shkodra said.

The Kosovo Foreign Ministry in December last year had announced through a post in Titter that it was the target of a cyberattack.

The relevant “authorities have responded and are working to keep the communication system safe and operational. First investigations show that sources of attacks have come from Serbia and Bosnia”, it had written MPJ in Titter.

In the nongovernmental security organisation Cybernetic and Privateity, they say Kosovo is making efforts to protect against possible cyber attacks, but, unlike state institutions, in this organisation say the work leaves much to be desired for what has been done so far.

Mentor Hoxhaj from the Cyber Security and Private Organisation told Radio Free Europe that all internet users, ranging from individual to local, central, public and private institutions, are exposed to possible cyber attacks. According to him, when we talk about building cyberattack protection capacities, there is still work to be done.

Kosovo has much to do to prepare for the challenges that await it in the field of cyber security. Currently, Kosovo is not prepared for the current challenges in the field of cyber security. Kosovo is quite sensitive to such attacks. We do not see that the institutions of the Republic of Kosovo have taken serious measures to protect against possible attacks”, Hoxhaj said. He also said that some research and testing has been noted that many institutions have not yet taken minimal measures to protect themselves from cyber attacks.

The “Ende is working, yet are not the necessary capacity both human and technical to deal with possible attacks that state institutions or public and private institutions may have. Also, if they take into account the assessments we've made in terms of the level of public and private institutions' security, we've done some minor research and I'm saying that Kosovo is quite desirable when it sees that public institutions haven't taken basic measures”, Hoxhaj said.

On the other hand, Deputy Minister Shkodra rejects claims that institutions do not have the capacity to work in this direction.

The country's “Institutions have the necessary and abundant human capacity on this level and the same do the work committedly and tell citizens and institutions that the same measures are needed for them to be safe”, Shkodra said.

Kosovo has the Law for Prevention and Combating Cybercrime. Interior Ministry officials also say that the cyber security bill is currently being drafted. They said the new law will include many segments which will create greater reliefs for action in this area.