Cyberattack on Moldova’s Court of Accounts destroyed public audits

​Moldova’s “Court of Accounts” has suffered a cyberattack leading to the agency’s public databases and audits being destroyed.

Court of Accounts of Moldova is a government authority that performs audits of public financial resources and government agencies to comply with international standards.

Yesterday, Moldovia’s state news agency Moldpres reported on behalf of the Court of Accounts that their website was hacked, and threat actors destroyed audit reports and other public data.

“It is for the first time when the supreme audit institution faces such a situation. The destruction of the public page took place in the context of important audits and with impact in the society, at the stage of reporting and making public of the most significant audit missions planned in the institution’s work,’’ the Court of Accounts said.  

The attack has led the agency to shut down its website while the incident is investigated and data can be restored.

The agency states that they are investigating whether the attack was arbitrary, done for extortion, or to disrupt their work.

“The needed investigations will identify whether the attack has been organized by hackers arbitrarily, on purposes of blackmailing, or it is about a planned order, in order to create impediments to the work of the country’s supreme audit institution,” said the Court of Accounts.

While this cyberattack was destructive for the Court of Accounts, the threat actors could have caused further damage by using the site to distribute malware to visitors.

Last week, researchers from T&T Security disclosed that the Kazakhstan government’s ‘Open Budgets’ website used by government agencies and local government branches to publish budget reports was hacked to distribute malicious office documents that installed malware.