Albania Archives - Page 2 of 4

Albania to Hire US Cybersecurity Firm After Data Breach

Posted on January 11, 2022January 26, 2023 by Ivana Jeremic

The Albanian government said on Tuesday that it has signed a memorandum of understanding with the US-based Jones International Group, which is expected to advise on cyber security measures after the country suffered a huge data leak in late December.

The agreement with the Virginia-based Jones International Group was made public through a decision by Albania’s Council of Ministers but no details of tender procedures or the costs involved were disclosed.

“This is just an agreement of understanding in which the parties agree that they will work with each other. The other documents [contracts] will become known in the future,” the spokesperson at the Ministry of Infrastructure and Energy, Florian Serjani, told BIRN on Tuesday when asked about the cost.

When asked what was the basis upon which the company was chosen, Serjani said that “we have experience with this company because they have worked with the OST [Albania’s transmission system operator]”.

The Jones International Group, which provides cyber security, energy, telecommunications and political consulting services and products, is run by James Logan Jones, a former US Navy general and former US National Security Advisor. Jones was also the US supreme allied commander in Europe.

The Minister of Infrastructure and Energy, Belinda Balluku, met Jones on Monday and said that he has “expressed readiness to cooperate with the Albanian government for cyber protection, as one of the companies with the greatest experience in the US and Europe”.

Quoted by local media on Tuesday, Jonas said he feels honoured to help Albania in “cyberwar.”

“…There is a clear and obvious danger…”, he was quoted as saying.

The US company, which according to the official data was established in July 2020, plans a strategy of how to install multilayer protective systems to prevent cyberattacks in a country where people can find more than 90 per cent of their public administration services online.

Jones has previous connections with Albania. In 2019, while working as US National Security Advisor, in Albania he met the People’s Mojahedin Organisation of Iran, MEK, a controversial Iranian opposition group that has been sheltered by Albania since 2013. He has been presented as a longtime supporter of the Iranian resistance, especially the members of the MEK in Iraq.

At a NATO conference on security challenges facing technology two years ago in Tirana, he warned Albania to be vigilant about China offering to provide 5G technology.

After the huge data leak in December, the Tirana prosecution started checking a list allegedly containing the personal data of hundreds of thousands of Albanian citizens which was circulated on WhatsApp. Four people are under investigation over the leak.

It was alleged that the data contained the monthly salaries, job positions, employer names and ID numbers of some 630,000 citizens, from both the public and private sectors.

Another data leak of salaries for the month of April was released and circulated via WhatsApp one day later.

It was followed by a further data leak that contained private information about citizens’ vehicle number plates.

In April 2021, a few days before elections in the country, a database with the private information of around 910,000 voters in Tirana was leaked to the media.

It was claimed that the database belonged to the ruling Socialist Party and was taken from state institutions and used for electoral purposes.

The database, which BIRN has seen, included names, addresses, birth dates, personal ID cards, employment information and other data.

The Socialist Party denied wrongdoing, insisting that the information was gathered in door-in-door surveys. The case is still with the prosecution.

Albania Announces Four Arrests Over Massive Data Leaks

Posted on January 7, 2022January 26, 2023 by Ivana Jeremic

The Prosecutor of Tirana, Elisabeta Imeraj, told the media on Friday that police had arrested four people in connection with the massive data leaks that have rocked Albania.

Two people from state institutions suspected of selling people’s personal data and two others from private entities suspected of buying it had been arrested.

“They are employed in the National Information Service Agency, but practice their profession in the General Directorate of Taxes”, she said referring to the two arrested from state institutions.

The Tirana prosecution in December started checking a list allegedly containing the personal data of hundreds of thousands of Albanian citizens which has been circulated on social media.

It was alleged that the data contained the monthly salaries, job positions, employer names and ID numbers of some 630,000 citizens, from both the public and private sectors for January 2021.

Another data leak of salaries for the month of April was released and circulated through WhatsApp just one day later.

It was followed by another data leak that contained private information about citizens’ car plates.

Experts told BIRN that these leaks pose public security questions.

In April 2021, a few days before elections, a database with the private information of around 910,000 voters in Tirana was leaked to the media.

It was claimed that the database belonged to the ruling Socialist Party and was taken from state institutions and used for electoral purposes.

The database, which BIRN has seen, contained some 910,000 entries including names, addresses, birth dates, personal ID cards, employment information and other data.

The Socialist Party denied wrongdoing, insisting that the information was gathered in door-in-door surveys. The case is still with the prosecution.

Massive Data Leaks in Albania Pose Public Security Question

Posted on December 23, 2021January 26, 2023 by Ivana Jeremic

A database circulating online containing private information of Albanian citizens’ salaries, and another with private information and comments on political preferences that circulated in April, have raised concerns about public security in the country.

Prosecutors in Tirana started verification hours after a massive data breach of citizens’ private information started circulating online, initially through “Whatsapp”. The data contain the salaries, job positions, employer names and ID numbers of some 630,000 citizens, from both the public and private sectors.

The opposition Democratic Party condemned “an extraordinary scandal” and accused the Socialist government of failing to protect citizens’ private data.

The excel file that was leaked contained the salaries of the citizens for the month of January, while another which started circulating on Thursday contained salaries for April.

On Thursday Prime Minister Edi Rama called it “an attempt to create confusion and to foster instability”, implying also that the destabilization efforts came from the country’s divided opposition.

Enri Hide, a security expert and professor at the European University in Tirana, called it “an open threat to the national security” and added that “the institutional reaction “is not at all serious and proportionate to the degree of risk”.

“First of all, it shows the weaknesses of Albania’s cyber-security infrastructure. Second, it shows the lack of a response plan in such cases,” Hide told BIRN.

Asked if a specific group of people such as Intelligence or Army are more threatened than others, Hide said that the exposure “has extremely serious consequences for Intelligence” and the military.

“The long-term consequences for the Intelligence and Security and Defence system are 1. Use of the data by foreign actors in order to monitor the payment system of the sector. 2. Now that this level is being clarified, foreign intelligence agencies may attempt to ‘intervene’ or try to ‘offer rewards’ to actors in key / sensitive positions,” he told BIRN.

He added that the private sector was also at risk by making citizens vulnerable to blackmail.

“Cyber-security must be taken seriously. We need a strategy based not on letters but on modus operandi. We need a clear protocol of what should happen if we have such leaks. There is not any and it is shameful,” he said.

Fabian Zhilla, a security expert based in Tirana, said the leak of the database with the private information of citizens data that, “the public loses trust in public institutions and the loss of trust is directly related to the cooperation that citizens should have with institutions:”. If this threat is not addressed “citizens will be exposed and blackmailed and this includes employees of important state institutions”.

“If we talk about the protection of personal data, there is no doubt that the bodies that deal with the monitoring of all servers of public institutions such as National Agency for Information Society, AKSHI, must have a protocol and if there is no protocol … AKSHI should definitely set up a working group to make an assessment of preventive measures but also measures in case of information leaks and how it can be managed in real-time to prevent their spread in public,” Zhilla told BIRN.

He confirmed that secret service employees, intelligence services, military intelligence units and counter-terrorism units were at special risk.

“It is very important that a commission be set up at the ministerial level, perhaps with the request of Parliament to make a better assessment of the protection protocol, the measures related to the status quo of the infrastructure that the official institutions have today to protect the personal data,” he added.

The head of AKSHI, Linda Karancaj, said on Thursday that “the tax system is not certified by ISO, but we are in the process”.

According to the National Strategy of Cyber Security 2020 -2025 “any government infrastructure under the administration of AKSHI, ISO 27001standard policies are applied”.

In April 2021, a few days before elections in the country, a database with the private information of around 910,000 voters in Tirana was leaked to the media.

It was claimed that the database belonged to the ruling Socialist Party and was taken from state institutions and used for electoral purposes.

The database, which BIRN has seen, contained some 910,000 entries including names, addresses, birth dates, personal ID cards, employment information and other data.

The Socialist Party denied wrongdoing, insisting that the information was gathered in door-in-door surveys. The case is still with the prosecution.

Albanian Prosecutors Probe Huge Suspected Leak of Personal Data

Posted on December 22, 2021January 26, 2023 by Ivana Jeremic

The Tirana prosecution told BIRN that it has “started verifications” of a list allegedly containing the personal data of hundreds of thousands of Albanian citizens which has been circulated on social media.

It is alleged that the data contains the monthly salaries, job positions, employer names and ID numbers of some 630,000 citizens, from both the public and private sectors.

It is suspected that the list was leaked from the tax service or the Social Insurance Institute.

Government spokesman Endri Fuga said that the Ministry of Finance was following with concern the release of data on the salaries of Albanian citizens, and described the document as “illegal”.
Fuga said in a statement that preliminary analysis has shown that “there has been no digital export of the [state] payroll database” and that the document is a “merger of several different pieces” of data.

President Ilir Meta called it “a flagrant violation of freedoms, human rights and dignity, laws and the constitution” and urged the authorities to investigate the case and find the perpetrators.

“The personal data of every citizen, which is stored by public institutions and administered in state databases, is personal, protected by law and intended to be used only for the benefit of citizens and the state only,” Meta said.

“Any other use of it is a criminal act, which endangers the social order by violating the private security of every citizen,” he added.

The deputy leader of the opposition Democratic Party, Enkelejd Alibeaj, said it was “an extraordinary scandal” and alleged that the government of Prime Minister Edi Rama has failed to protect “personal and sensitive data on salaries, personal identification numbers, and the workplaces of over 630,000 citizens”.

Alibeaj said the Democratic Party believes that the online publication of the list “is part of a [ruling] party-state strategy to use sensitive information for electoral purposes”.

If confirmed, this would be the second time in a year that large amounts of citizens’ private data have entered the public domain.

In April 2021, a few days before the general elections in the country, a database with the private information of around 910,000 voters in Tirana was leaked to the media.

It was claimed that the database belonged to the ruling Socialist Party and was taken from state institutions and used for electoral purposes.

The database, which BIRN has seen, contained some 910,000 entries including names, addresses, birth dates, personal ID cards, employment information and other data.

The Socialist Party denied wrongdoing, insisting that the information was gathered in door-in-door surveys.

Albania Journalist Union ‘Expected’ Public TV Director’s Arrest

Posted on October 12, 2021January 26, 2023 by BIRD

Albania’s Special Court on Monday confirmed the decision by the Special Prosecution Against Organized Crime and Corruption, SPAK, on Friday to arrest the former General Director of Albanian Radio National Television, RTSH, Thoma Gëllçi, for abuse of duty over a tender worth about 708,000 euros.

The head of Albania’s Union of Journalists, Aleksander Cipa, told BIRN that they had earlier denounced abuses and corruption with public funds at the RTSH. “We think that embezzlement and illegal use [of public funds] occurs with public media assets,” he told BIRN.

“In this context, the arrest of the former General Director of RTSH is a serious event. I do not have accurate and sufficient information about the concrete file that SPAK has on Gëllçi, [however] as our media have shared different optics of judging and serving information in the most unprofessional way,” he continued.

“What is worrying for us has to do with the deliberate obstruction and stagnant state of corruption in the mechanism and management of public media in Albania,” he added.

The suspect tender was conducted in 2018. A SPAK investigation started in February 2020 and lasted about 18 months before ending in October 2021 with an arrest warrant.

The SPAK announcement stated that as well as Gëllçi, three members of the Bid Evaluation Commission of the procurement, with the object of buying equipment for the RTSh Agro channel for up to 86 million euros, without VAT, had been arrested on Friday last week, October 9. RTSH Agro channel is dedicated to culture and agriculture.

Gëllçi was dismissed on May 21 this year after his term ended. He formerly worked for Zeri i Popullit, a newspaper connected to the ruling Socialist Party and has been head of information of governments formed by the SP.

He was mentioned in a report of the OSBE/ODHIR related to the local elections in 2019 in the context of impartiality.

“RTSH’s General Director, Thoma Gëllçi, is a former editor-in-chief of the SP newspaper Zëri i Popullit and served as the Head of the Department of Information in several SP governments. Furthermore, the RTSH remains partially dependent on state funding. Dependence on the state budget and politicization of RTSH management raise concerns about the impartiality of the public broadcaster,” this report said.

Rights Groups Urge Albania to Cancel ‘Media and Info Agency’

Posted on October 11, 2021January 26, 2023 by Ivana Jeremic

Six organisations partnered under the Media Freedom Rapid Response group called on the government of Edi Rama in Albania to abandon plans to create a Media and Information Agency while urging the European Union to include the issue in future talks on membership.

ARTICLE 19, European Centre for Press and Media Freedom, ECPMF, International Press Institute, IPI, OBC Transeuropa, OBCT, European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) and Free Press Unlimited (FPU) said an already difficult situation for Albania journalists would likely deteriorate further and government influence on the flow of information would solidity if plans for the agency go forward.

“The undersigned partners of Media Freedom Rapid Response today express serious concern over a new Media and Information Agency (MIA) established by the government of Prime Minister Edi Rama in Albania and urge the ruling Socialist Party to immediately cancel the establishment to ensure it will not be used to further solidify control over the flow of public information,” the letter reads.

“We also urge the European Union to immediately engage with the Albanian government to raise these concerns as a matter of priority in future accession talks,” it adds.

Plans for the agency were announced on 20 September. According to it, the spokesperson of the government will “will be at the same level as that of a state minister” and will hire and fire spokespersons of all state institutions and will also produce “audiovisual or press information” to be distributed for free and also “observe media and mass communication tools, to take note of the perception and views of the public towards the activities of [government] institutions and the public administration”.

Albanian media dubbed the agency “a ministry of propaganda” and a “ministry of truth”, though the government claims it has borrowed the model from German and Italian governments, which, according to it, have similar structures.

“Our organisations share the concerns expressed by various leading editors-in-chief, civil society groups and media unions in Albania that rather than improve journalists’ access to public information, the establishment of the MIA may result in the exact opposite,” the letter by the rights organisations reads.

“Context is vital here,” it adds. “Journalists in Albania currently work in an extremely difficult climate for accessing information from government sources. The government communicates with journalists via WhatsApp groups instead of using official communication channels. Reporters working for independent media are regularly discriminated against when seeking information or comment from ministers. Journalists viewed as representing ‘opposition’ outlets are denied accreditation or barred from asking questions at press conferences,” it continues.

They also see the agency’s role of “observing mass communication means” as a problem that “sets alarm bells ringing”.

“Following major revelations about the collection of citizen’s data by political parties via state institutions, the notion of tax-payer money being used to fund the monitoring of the press and social media by a government agency sets alarm bells ringing,” the letter reads.

Following the outcry from local rights organisations and journalists, the government has not yet moved to establish the agency and has not appointed a director, although it is widely expected that PM Edi Rama’s current spokesperson, Endri Fuga, will hold the position.

Rama has a poor record in terms of building independent institutions. Last June, he defied explicit requests by the European Commission to not appoint Armela Krasniqi, a close collaborator and former party spokesperson, as chairman of the Audiovisual Media Authority, an agency that should be politically independent.

“In the longer term, this agency ultimately risks being a powerful tool for any government, current or future, to control the flow of public information to the media and to influence what citizens read, hear and watch. The role of journalists is to act as a filter between government and citizens. Limiting their ability to do so by constraining opportunities to question officials and side-lining critical journalists severely limits the ability of the press to do its job and hold power to account,” the letter reads.

Albania Govt’s Planned Information Agency Accused of ‘Propaganda’ Role

Posted on September 20, 2021January 26, 2023 by Ivana Jeremic

The Albanian government has come under criticism from the opposition and rights groups after it decided on Saturday to establish a new Agency for Media and Information that will centralise the government’s media messaging, sparking allegations that Prime Minister Edi Rama’s administration is seeking to evade media scrutiny.

The agency will be led by the government’s spokesperson, whose position will be “at the same level as that of a state minister”. It will control the hiring and firing of press officers in all central government institutions, including ministries.

It role will also be to “observe media and mass communication tools, to take note of the perception and views of the public towards the activities of [government] institutions and the public administration”, the government decision said.

“As part of the Agency, in any ministry of central government institution, structures will be created or employees will be appointed for information and media communication, appointed by the Agency to represent the respective institutions in their public and media communications, or to carry out any duty ordered by the director of the Agency,” it added.

Agron Gjekmarkaj, an opposition Democratic Party MP, called the move “an imitation of Goebbelsian tools”, a reference to Adolf Hitler’s Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels.

“This Agency for Information is another instrument of propaganda, control and blackmail,” Gjekmarkaj wrote on Facebook on Saturday.

Aleksander Cipa, head of Albanian Media Union, a rights NGO in Tirana, said the decision was a move that aim to “centralise public information”.

“Such practices create a serious problem regarding propaganda and pre-prepared information,” Cipa said.

The government claims the agency is based on “successful similar models in Italy and Germany”.

Socialist Party Prime Minister Rama has already been criticised by domestic and international rights organisations for closing doors to the media by not holding press conferences, creating pre-prepared ‘news’ reports and by livestreaming his political activities using his own crews of camera operatotrs.

Other institutions have moved in the same direction, by employing media crews and distributing ‘news’ reports to private television stations that are pre-prepared for broadcast, as well as publishing them on social media.

Albanian Police Filmed Mistreating TV News Journalists

Posted on July 27, 2021January 26, 2023 by Ivana Jeremic

Albanian police on Tuesday manhandled Ergjys Gjencaj, a journalist for the News 24 TV channel, and pushed his colleague Klodiana Lala after failing to detain a suspected criminal.

The incident was caught on camera, and afterwards Interior Minister Bledi Cuci told BIRN that he will order an investigation, while the Office of Tirana Circuit Prosecution said it will check the police’s conduct.

Several videos taken at the scene show several plainclothes police officers stopping the car of their suspect, who then refuses to unlock the doors.

A News 24 car with the TV channel’s logos on all sides then arrives at the scene and journalists Gjencaj and Lala get out.

Gjencaj starts filming using his mobile phone as the suspect runs away. After failing to arrest the suspect, several officers turn on the journalists.

One of them is seen grabbing the phone of Gjencaj, who is made to lie face down on the ground. As Lala starts protesting, a person in civilian clothes who is believed to be a police officer pushes her away.

Gjencaj told BIRN that police kept him face down for several minutes and checked his pockets.

“I have worked as journalist covering the police for the last 20 years. This is the first time that such thing happened to me,” Gjencaj told BIRN.

Lala, a known crime reporter, said that they both just happened to be on the scene when the attempted arrest took place.

“I cried out that they were stopping a journalist,” Lala said, emphasising that the officers could not have missed the logos of the news channel on their car.

In a statement, the prosecution promised “in-depth verifications of the incident”.

Journalist Ergys Gjencaj lying on the ground during the incident. Photo: Balkanweb.com

State Police director Ardi Veliu didn’t respond to BIRN’s request for a comment by the time of publication.

The Albania Media Council alleged that what happened “can hardly be an isolated incident”

“Unable to respond to crime, they orient the violence towards the reporters,” it said.

The Union of Albanian Journalists, a rights group based in Tirana, said it was “a grave incident” and called for the perpetrators to be punished.

“We condemn this act of violence and police brutality committed against a reporter,” the Union wrote on its Facebook page.

There had been several cases of police violence against reporters in the last several years while concerns had been raised due to lack of punishment for officers involved.

In 2019, police in Dibra mistreated Enver Doci, a News 24 reporter who happened to be at the scene of an operation.

Police acknowledged the incident and apologised following a local and international outcry but the officers responsible faced no consequences.

Police faced further criticism last December when two journalists, Xhoi Malesia and Qamil Chani were violently stopped in two separate incidents while reporting during clashes between police and young protesters.

Calls by Albanian rights groups to Prime Minister Edi Rama and State Police director Veliu to condemn the violence against media workers received no response.

EU Warns Albania Against Electing ‘Partisan’ Media Authority Chief

Posted on July 7, 2021January 26, 2023 by Ivana Jeremic

The European Union office in Tirana has voiced concern about the political impartiality of the new members and chief of Albania’s main media regulatory body.

In a statement, it emphasized that “media regulatory authorities need to work impartially, transparently and with a legitimacy that is recognised by all”, and that “no doubt should exist about the non-partisan, professional & pluralistic nature of the work” of the institution.

“We invite the authorities to consider proceeding with this nomination under the new parliament starting in September, together with the appointment of the other board members of the Authority, in order to achieve the widest possible consensus and legitimacy,” the statement published on Twitter reads.

Albania’s parliament, currently controlled by the governing Socialists and their associates, is planning to elect a new Audiovisual Media Authority Board, AMA, where the main contender is Armela Krasniqi, a close associate of Socialist Prime Minister Edi Rama.

BIRN has learned that the EU statement on Wednesday came after the Socialists spurned an EU private request to postpone the vote.

The AMA supervises the television and radio market in Albania. Rama attempted in 2019 to extend and empower it to supervise and order take-downs or fine online media, claiming it was needed to combat defamation.

The AMA is historically perceived as politically biased, as the members of the board are proposed by political parties. However, the possible election of Krasniqi, a known close associate of the Prime Minister, has raised hackles.

The political bias of AMA was one of the arguments provided by the Venice Commission against extending its power to supervise online media.

The so-called anti-defamation package was approved by the governing Socialists despite local and international criticism but has been blocked by President Ilir Meta’s veto.

Rama once claimed he had withdrawn the law proposal. However, no formal step to remove it from the parliamentary agenda has been undertaken, and the law is still listed as up for discussion.

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