In an unprecedented event, nearly 2,000 websites in Georgia were hit by a massive cyberattack. According to digital forensics specialists, the organizations most affected include government institutions, digital media platforms and broadcasting companies and even some financial institutions.
It all started this Monday morning, with reports of some service failures from some Georgian government websites. Over the hours, the number of reports increased to nearly 2,000 shut down websites. In most cases, the hacked websites displayed an image of Mikheil Saakashvili, former president of Georgia, in addition to the phrase “I’ll be back”.
Affected websites include those of:
- Three
TV channels: Imedi, TV Maestro and Pirveli - The
National Bank of Georgia - The
Office of the Presidency - Two
online news platforms: Tabula and Georgia Today
In this regard, Roman Gotsiridze of the United
National Movement Party (UNM) says it is the very same Georgian government that
is behind these attacks, by hiring a bot service. “The government’s
intention is to hold UNM or Ukraine accountable for these attacks,” says
the parliament member.
On the other hand, Irakli Chikhladze, director
of the TV channel Imedi, mentioned through a Facebook post: “Today, around
15:00, we detected that our networks were inactive and could not receive any
signal. Our digital forensics teams mention that this is the result of a
cyberattack.” Soon after, the official TV Maestro page confirmed that
their networks had also been compromised.
A couple of hours later, the Georgia National
Bank and some digital media platforms also reported flaws on their websites.
The administrators of the Tabula online news portal mentioned that it was a
cyberattack, although they claimed to be unaware of additional details.
The digital forensics specialist and former
head of the cybersecurity office of the Georgian Ministry of Defense, Andro
Gotseridze, says it is very difficult to find out who is responsible for these
attacks. “Even though these attacks are actually unsophisticated, their
range can be massive; although they do not cause loss of information, their
main intention is to send a message,” he adds. Previously the existence of
conventional Internet sites, as well as on dark web, that offer denial
of service (DoS) attacks for hire has been reported; Although
authorities around the world have tried to contain this activity, it is
relatively easy for some hacker groups to reassemble such structures.
The Georgian Ministry of the Interior has begun
investigating the incident, which a spokesperson called an “unauthorized
access to multiple public and private IT systems.” If they found those
responsible, they would face up to six years in prison.
This is not the first time that massive
cyberattacks are reported in this Eastern European country. According to
digital forensics specialists from the International Institute of Cyber Security
(IICS) just a month ago, the TV channel Pirveli revealed an incident that
significantly limited its broadcasting capacities. Georgia authorities were
unable to find traces of those responsible for this attack.
