TIRANA, September 21 – A NATO team headed by Deputy Assistant to the Secretary General of the Alliance, James Appathurai has arrived in Albania to assist the government on a political and technical level after the cyber attacks.
“These attacks were aimed at the complete destruction of the systems and platforms of state services, but they did not achieve the goal of erasing and destroying all our information technology systems,” said Defense Minister Niko Peleshi at the joint press conference with the NATO official on Tuesday.
According to him, the Albanian government reacted immediately after providing irrefutable evidence for the origin of the attack by immediately cutting off relations with Iran. “Actually, after nearly 5 weeks of intensive work, it has become possible to restore various systems and platforms to the service of the citizens of our country,” explained Peleshi.
He admitted that the attacks showed that Albania could not be permanently protected, but it must be vigilant and able to protect its infrastructure and information technologies by investing more in cyber war.
“The visit of today’s team is a proof of the solidarity and support, of the immediate reaction of the Alliance, where we are part of. Being one of NATO’s allies makes us safe, but of course more vigilance is needed from all institutions,” said Peleshi.
While Appathurai said that Albania is not alone in this journey because NATO supports it. “All NATO countries recognize the attack on Albania and certainly support it in this regard,” said Appathurai.
In the meantime, the government has turned harsh on Albanian media warning all media outlets not to publish anything released by the hackers. In general the media denounced such a measure telling the government to hold accountable institutions and their heads that could not protect the system under attack in this Balkan country. Such a censuring measure has been applied on no country’s media in the region. /Argumentum.al
