Security expert talks about cyber attacks in Kosovo, shows who they can come from

Aazi said that state institutions should deal seriously with the issue of cyber attacks, since, according to him, these attacks can always happen when there are developments in the country. As for personal data, he said it could be very dangerous if there are concessions and if institutions do not take the necessary security measures.

Security expert in an interview for Kosova Prees said that in these attacks, there is war between Ukraine and Russia. According to him, attacks in Kosovo can be realised more easily than those that have occurred in Albania.

The “Bota is going towards a cyber chaos and this has started in a tendency to increase from the war that started in Ukraine, where various allies are built and supported states, depending on the internal and external policies of various states. What has happened in Kosovo differs in what happens in Albania because in Albania it has been a targeted, state-sponsored attack and its goal has been to access systems and receive information, data. The attacks that have occurred in Kosovo are due to the halting of services, which has to do with the kind of attack that can be executed only by several acts in Kosovo and outside Kosovo, but it's not something planned in detail, it's not a very sponsored attack by other states, I can't state-sponsored that it is, since attacks are technically something easier to achieve than the attacks that took place in Albania”, he said.

While adding that the institutions are responsible if there are personal data concessions, as they process that data and have information on every citizen of Kosovo.

“Personal data can be very dangerous if there are concessions, if institutions don't take the security measures properly, then they don't oppose the measures that can be published once and which data can be sold... Institutions process the data of the citizens of the Republic of Kosovo, and this has made it necessarily responsible for this data if they are published, the identity of all citizens is stolen because the state has information on every single citizen. Digital life connects us to that information, we when we enter social networks identify with this information, at the same time that we want to protect ourselves and verify our identity and verify it with the same information”, it added Abazi.

At the same time, he mentioned measures to protect himself from cyberattacks. One of these is joint co-ordination of institutions. He said institutions must be established very quickly and take over the latest technologies for cyberattack protection.

“Institutions need to follow a joint co-ordination so that you can share experiences, records and all of these notes to do an analysis of what happened, what are the preventive measures. The good news of this disaster is that institutions are more or less conscious, conscious in terms of investing more, whether private businesses should invest more in these topics, by taking the job more seriously, because it may be a kind of attack that probably does not have any major effect, but may come the next one who can then the most impact and impact. For this reason institutions need to build capacities very quickly, more staff training, build human resource development parameters, should take over the latest technologies for protecting cyber attacks”, he said.

Ahaz added that cyberattacks can come at any time, especially when there are developments in the country.

These attacks could come at any time because these have no physical boundaries, but we need to analyse geopolitical situations that occur in the country and I believe there will be cyber attacks every time there are developments with Kosovo. Thus, the State must make arrangements whenever there are various decisions concerning other countries, always being ready and alert to protect itself in cyberattacks. The institutions taken seriously build the agency where data coordinates, this thing more practical for institutions, not just writing on paper. Otherwise the principle and the letter do not protect us from cyberattacks, but there are technical measures that protect us from”, he said.

According to him, cyber attacks can come from Serbia, Iran, Russia and China as well, but stresses there may be people inside Kosovo who have a policy.

History tells us that we with the Serbian state have no good relations, so we must protect ourselves from them, but not alone. It may also be Iran, Russia, may be an ally of China, which is a group of allies who can work together for these purposes. We can also have from people within the state of Kosovo who have a policy that protests through activism, as was the last case where it was declared, that because of a regulation or position taken by the government, they protest such things, so it can be from within but also from other states outside”, he said.

The goal of the recent cyber attacks in Kosovo has largely been state institutions, media and businesses.