Tag: balkan insight

Killed Children’s Remembrance Day sparks online violations in Bosnia

On May 5, Sarajevo’s Day of Remembrance for Fallen Children was celebrated in Children’s Square in Sarajevo with parents and officials laying flowers and addressing gathered residents. The event was also attended by Sefik Dzaferovic and Zeljko Komsic, members of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The Memorial to Children Killed in the 1992-1995 siege was inaugurated on May 9, 2009, in Veliki Park in the municipality of Centar, by artist Mensud Kečo. A year after its opening a pedestal was erected containing the names of 521 children, out of an estimated total of 1,621 dead.

A Bosnian woman prays on the 30th anniversary of the Bosnian Independence at a memorial to the fallen soldiers in the Bosnian War (1992-95), in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, 01 March 2022. Photo: EPA-EFE/FEHIM DEMIR

Three days after this year’s commemoration day, political analyst and psychologist Srdjan Puhalo wrote an article querying the figures used, titled: “Prove that 1,601 children were killed in Sarajevo or stop using that number”.

“The media in Sarajevo know that this number is not based on reliable research, but still transmit inaccurate information without any evidence. I don’t know why they do that, but in any case, it is not correct, professional, or fair,” Puhalo added.

Following the controversial statements, Puhalo was targeted by several insults and threats on Twitter.

Puhalo was also supported by film director Jasmila Žbanić however, who on May 13 on social media urged institutions to publish accurate data on the number of children killed. The director, who was backed by the Director of the Museum of War Childhood, Jasminko Halilović, and political analyst Ivana Marić, said she had since been exposed to “a wave of anger from those who disagree on the important truth”, adding that, “every child killed deserves to know his or her name and to know exactly how he was killed and who killed him!”

In her police report, she stated that some threats were sent from the Facebook profile of Haris Zahiragić, an MP. “Zahiragić put her name and picture in a false context and provoked a mob calling for a lynch with her lies,” she wrote. Another comment about her had read: “Žbanić should be killed as a matter of urgency”.

Fake news on Ukrainian President continues to go viral in Hungary

Following the April 28 episode of misinformation where Ukrainian President Zelensky was falsely accused of using drugs, online violations targeting Zelensky have not slowed in Hungary’s digital environment.

Disinformation campaigns and misleading news about Zelensky are now commonplace in several countries where social media channels linked to Russia and Belarus aim to destabilize digital environments.

Recently, Pro-Russia online operatives falsely claimed that the Ukrainian President had committed suicide in an attempt to undermine the Ukrainian government and deceive the public.

In an opinion poll launched by Statista, in May, about 65 per cent of Hungarian citizens expressed a negative opinion about Zelensky. This could reflect the disinformation campaigns that pro-Fidesz media outlets have started since the conflict began in Ukraine.

Supporters of Ukraine attend a counter-event against a pro-Russian rally held nearby in Budapest, Hungary, 30 April 2022. Photo: EPA-EFE/Zoltan Balogh

On May 10, an episode was recorded in Hungary where a picture of a weeping girl with a caption calling her the daughter of Zelensky spread among Hungarian Facebook users. The text circulating online says “Zelensky’s daughter” hates her father, who is a “fascist” and “murderer of the Ukrainian people”. However, the picture did not actually show Zelensky’s daughter. It was from a Russian-language video, available online since 2017, in which the crying girl complains that her boyfriend didn’t buy her a new phone.

A further episode of online manipulation occurred on May 16 in which Zelensky was accused of wearing a Nazi swastika. Several social media posts of Zelensky holding a soccer jersey with a swastika in place of a number went viral on Hungarian social media. However, after the detection of pixel discrepancies by AFP, it was found that the picture had been digitally manipulated by adding a swastika to an original photo that Zelensky posted last year, on June 8.

The caption read: “The new jersey of Ukraine’s national football team is special. It can shock. It features several important symbols that unite Ukrainians from Luhansk to Uzhgorod, from Chernihiv to Sevastopol. Our country is one and indivisible. Crimea is Ukraine.”

In polarised Serbia, online attacks on journalists keep going

Although Serbia has some of the most advanced legislation on the media, journalists are routinely threatened by political pressures, and by the impunity of crimes committed against them. In a highly polarised political climate, journalists remain subjected to political attacks instigated by members of the ruling elite that are amplified by certain national TV networks, according to RSF.

A protestor wears a mask while blocking the streets in front of the government headquarters during a protest against Rio Tinto’s plans to open a lithium mine in Belgrade, Serbia, 18 December 2021. Photo: EPA-EFE/ANDREJ CUKIC

Mina Delić, a journalist and photographer from Senta, in the northern province of Vojvodina, received a court summons over the environmental protests and roadblocks organized across Serbia in December last year. She was allegedly marked as a protest organizer because she had posted a call to a protest in a Facebook group. She was summoned to attend the Senta Misdemeanor Court on May 23, and if she does not respond or justify her absence, her arrest would be ordered.

Another case was related to a local government official who used Facebook to insult a journalist and the television station employing her, as well as an opposition activist. Zdravko Mladenović, president of Batočina municipality, posted insulting remarks about Zlatija Labović and Dragan Biočanin, a local opposition activist who Labović had interviewed. Mladenović said: “What else can you expect from such appearances, deserters, traitors, clowns and jukeboxes, to whom you insert something, and they play and sing when you press a button?” Last December, Mladenović also insulted the correspondent of H1 Television shouting: “Why are you filming?” and “You did not announce yourself to come,” expelling the journalist from the Assembly session.

Cyber-attacks and Russian-sponsored DDoS attacks target Romania and North Macedonia

Hacking attacks continue to be registered with alarming frequency in Romania and North Macedonia, where large public companies and institutional sites are targeted by groups that are often linked to Russia.

In the most prominent case of digital rights violations in North Macedonia in the first half of May, scammers targeted one of the biggest banks, NLB Bank and its customers, asking them for their personal data and accounts. The bank warned customers not to share any details with those asking for it, even if they say they are bank representatives.

In another incident, recorded on April 30, the Romanian National Cybersecurity Directorate said its own website was temporarily taken down by a DDoS attack one day after key public institutions in the country were hit by a wave of cyber-attacks claimed by Killnet, a pro-Russia hacking group. The DDoS attack blocked user access to the website for six hours.

A further incident occurred on May 1 when Digi24.ro, the most read news site in Romania, remained unreachable for some hours after a DDoS attack, later also claimed by Killnet. “The Mirai Team is causing massive damage to Digi24 servers. We are waiting for the next success,” the message posted on Killnet’s Telegram said.

Romanian Far-Rightists Storm Digital Environment

Following the rejection of the so-called “Sovereignty Bill” by Romania’s Chamber of Deputies on May 10, the political climate has further deteriorated.

The law initiative, signed by 23 MPs from the Alliance for the Union of Romanians, AUR, two from the Social Democratic Party, PSD, and two unaffiliated MPs, and which was on the list for a vote in the Chamber of Deputies, aimed, among other things, to extend the powers of the Intelligence service, empowering it to oblige civilians or companies, as well as public authorities and institutions, to collaborate with the institution.

On May 10, two AUR MPs live-streamed themselves harassing Alfred-Robert Simonis, leader of the Social Democratic parliamentary group in the hallway of the Chamber of Deputies. One of the two MPs, Dumitru-Viorel Focșa, as he left the plenary hall, threatened Simonis, telling him: “I will walk over your body. You are a bastard!” Following this, Simonis also hurled insults at the two MPs. This angered supporters of the far-right party, who further insulted and harassed Simonis on Facebook. Later that day, AUR politician also admitted threatening to beat Simonis

A second case saw George Nicolae Simion, leader of the AUR, storm his way into a media outlet. On May 18, after Virgil Popescu, the Minister of Energy, accused him of defending Russian interests in Romania, he live-streamed himself breaking into the newsroom of Digi24 news TV station. Two security guards accused him of forcing his way into the TV studio premises and called the police. Simion initially refused to leave but left after the arrival of the police, shouting: “The state authorities are at the disposal of Digi24. This is the headquarters of the SRI [Romanian Intelligence Service].”

Misinformation about Ukraine spreads in Hungary, Serbia

Since the Ukrainian war started in February, the digital environments in Hungary and Serbia have experienced increasing amounts of disinformation about what is happening there. Online violations involving propaganda and fake news have become endemic and routine. Hungary remains at the top of the list of countries with the largest number of such digital breaches.

On May 15, news was published on several Hungarian-language news portals that McDonald’s had introduced a “neo-Nazi menu in Norway”. This referred to the so-called “Bandera burger” that the news portals said was named after the World War II Ukrainian ultra-nationalist Stepan Bandera. In fact, the name “Bandera” referred to the sauce in the hamburger, which recalled the colours of the Mexican flag and was inspired by a particular ingredient of Mexican cuisine.

A further episode of disinformation in Hungary occurred on May 30. After Ukrainian soldiers defending the Azovsztal plant in the port of Mariupol surrendered in May, a photo of an American admiral Eric Olson, shown among the prisoners-of-war, began to spread in the Hungarian social media. Fact-checking websites revealed that the photo was taken a month before Mariupol surrendered and was published on April 14 by the Russian state news agency Sputnik.

Hungary is not the only country where false news about the Ukraine conflict is spreading. On May 27, several news portals in Serbia also reported on an alleged statement by the Mayor of Kyiv, Vitali Klitschko comparing the war in Ukraine and the conflict in Kosovo.

Klitschko has since denied saying this. The news, which went viral in the Serbian digital space, reported an interview given by Klitschko to a Swiss portal in which he supposedly stated: “The Ukrainians will get rid of the Russians like the Albanians got rid of Serbs.” Klitschko also allegedly said: “I am very glad to have met an Albanian journalist for the first time, which is a good opportunity to convey a message to the Albanian people in the Balkans. We have heard and read that you Albanians, like us Ukrainians, are people of peace and freedom-loving. Today we are fighting the Russian regime that is trying to occupy our country, as you were once occupied by Serbia.”

Later that day, on his Facebook profile, the Mayor denied making the quote. “I did not comment on that. Even before they transmit such information and quote anything, journalists should look for audio or video evidence for such an exclusive,” Klitschko wrote.

Political tensions and discrediting strategies in Bosnia, North Macedonia

Ahead of the general elections on October 2, Bosnia has experienced an increasing number of party clashes and internal tensions.

“Bosnia and Herzegovina remain a country traumatized by war,” said Christian Schmidt, the international community’s High Representative, in a letter to the President of the UN Security Council on April 29. Outlining the main challenges ahead of the elections, Schmidt also said that the authorities of the mainly Serbian Republika Srpska entity have increasingly embraced rhetoric and actions that could undermine Bosnia’s constitutional framework and render state laws inapplicable.

On May 23, meanwhile, Alma Omerović, president of the Women of the SDA (Democratic Action Party) in Sarajevo, invited all voters to vote for her Bosniak party in the elections. Omerović who is also the president of the municipal assembly in Ilijas, insulted the vice-president of the Social Democratic Party, SDP, Denis Bećirović, who will be her opponent in the race for the Bosniak post on the three-member state presidency.

Omerović, who called Bećirović a “traitor” also declared an election “jihad” on social media. “Bosniaks, this is the jihad of our time,” she said on Facebook.

The statement drew numerous reactions, including from the US embassy in Bosnia. “Such a comment is contrary to the sincere commitment to inclusive and collaborative participation in government, for the benefit of all BiH citizens, which is exactly what voters in this country want and deserve,” the embassy said.

In North Macedonia, meanwhile, our monitors also registered a case related to political tensions. On May 25, several Twitter users, in order to discredit the local city government, shared a photo depicting a project that the city of Skopje is carrying out regarding an access ramp in one of its municipalities. The photo, however, turned out to be cropped and the circumstances of the project weren’t stated, which led many Twitter users to accuse the city authorities of not doing a good job on the project.

Albania’s Prime Minister, Edi Rama, starts his workday at 8 a.m. on his Facebook page, posting photos or videos that foster an aura of optimism, often showing fragments of infrastructure projects from across the country.

Rama has turned his private Facebook page into the main communications channel between the government and the public; it has some 1.6 million likes and posts appear six or seven times a day. Each post gets hundreds of comments and thousands of likes.

Since 2013, the Prime Minister’s office has had another Facebook page, called Kryeministria. However, it’s a lot less popular, with just 3,500 followers, few interactions and no real public influence.

Rama is not the only member of the Albanian government to concentrate public communications in his private channels. Most of his ministers follow the same model; they have more followers and much more content on their personal pages than on the pages of the official institutions they lead.

Social media has been transformed over the last decade into a major political tool in elections; however, to be efficacious, they need to be fed continuously.

Data obtained through a Freedom of Information request also show that Prime Minister Rama and his ministers use public funds and resources and for this, alongside an extensive network of public employees, to produce content and promote their social media accounts.

By analyzing data collected by Crowdtangle, a tool developed by Facebook, BIRN discovered that the personal Facebook pages of Rama and his ministers are fed with far more posts, videos and lives than their institutional pages. About 98 per cent of the total interactions go to their personal pages, compared to just 2 per cent to their institutions’ pages.

The management of the digital communication channels of the Prime Minister, ministers, the Prime Minister’s office and the ministries is the responsibility of the Media and Information Agency, MIA, a body created amidst debate a year ago, which is led by his spokesperson, Endri Fuga.

Although the Socialist government’s communications through social media networks are not regulated by law, civil society groups accuse it of using public resources for political purposes.

“Ministers’ political profiles are supported by ad money from the state budget, while their official duties are later used as weapons to support their parties in election campaigns,” said Rigerls Xhemollari, from the Qëndresa Qytetare, an NGO.

Fuga, director of the MIA, told BIRN that the management of the content of the social media accounts of the Prime Minister and his ministers serves to inform the public. He dismisses suggestions that public resources are being misused.

“Employees of the MIA, including the spokespersons of the ministries, are engaged in producing content that is related only to the government duties of the Prime Minister and members of the government,” Fuga said.

“Their work serves the purpose of informing the public through the social networks about the government’s activities, not the personal or political-party activities of the ministers,” he added.

Private accounts much busier than public ones

Albania’s Prime Minister Edi Rama flashes a Victory gesture to the media as he casts his ballot at a polling station near Tirana, Albania, 25 June 2017. Albanians head to the polls on 25 June for parliamentary elections. EPA/MALTON DIBRA

The MIA was created in September last year through a decision of the Council of Ministers. It is responsible for providing transparency over the policies and activities of the Council of Ministers, ministries and any central government body.

The agency also produces government propaganda and manages and supplies the social networks of the Prime Minister, the Prime Minister’s Office, the ministers and their ministries with content.

MIA told BIRN in an answer to an FoI request that the content for the social networks of the Prime Minister and his office is the responsibility of four employees of the sector for informing the citizens, and is supported by the sector handling Design and Creative Product. The MIA did not divulge the number of employees engaged in this latter sector.

The MIA answer stated that the social network accounts of the members of the government and their ministries are managed by their spokespersons, supported by “structures responsible in each ministry”.

On Rama’s and his ministers’ pages on social media networks they often post personal statements or about their political or party activities, but the MIA insisted these are not their responsibility.

“The publication of posts of a personal character, such as opinions… are the responsibility of the Prime Minister or the ministers, while the publication of the activities or materials of political character and their publication on the social media accounts of the Prime Minister and the ministers are prepared and managed by their political staff, attached to the Socialist Party,” the MIA said.

The number of PR officers that work for the Prime Minister and ministers and their ministries is difficult to ascertain. However, a former ministerial adviser told BIRN on condition of anonymity that there are far more people engaged in this than the official numbers.

“Apart from the spokesperson, each minister has an advisor for media relations and three or four specialists that produce the content for social media,” he said, adding that part of the PR staff usually are paid formally for other positions not directly related to the job they actually do.

In the virtual world of the Facebook, the most popular social network in the country, the success of a page or profile is measured by the number of posts, shares or likes – which are counted as “interactions”.

Using data obtained through the Crowdtangle tool, BIRN discovered that the private pages of Rama and the ministers have an aggregate content and interactions that dwarf the activity of the official pages of the respective institutions. In this analysis, the private profile of Deputy Prime Minister Belinda Balluku is excluded, as she doesn’t have a page on Facebook.

Over a one-year period, the personal page of Rama and ministers together had some 8,801 posts while their official pages have some 5,342 posts. About 62 per cent of posts went to the private pages while 38 per cent to the official ones.

The private pages also had 53 per cent of the all videos posted on Facebook and 69 per cent of live transmissions.

However, the gulf is much wider when views or videos and interactions are also taken into account.

Data collected by using Crowdtangle shows that the private pages of Rama and the ministers together secured more than 15.2 million interactions during a one-year period, while their official pages had just 292,000 interactions. It means that some 98 per cent of the interactions went to the personal pages, compared to just 2 per cent to the official ones.

‘Historical memory ending up on mobile phones’

Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama speaks to media as he arrives for an EU-Western Balkans leaders’ meeting in Brussels, Belgium, 23 June 2022. The progress on EU integration and the challenges which the Western Balkans countries face in connection to the Russian invasion of Ukraine are topping the agenda when EU and Western Balkan leaders meet prior a European Council meeting. EPA-EFE/STEPHANIE LECOCQ

The normal practice of Western leaders in communicating through social networks involves a clear division between their personal pages and the official pages of the public institutions, which carry most of the burden in communicating with the wider public.

In Albania, the strategy of the government effectively favours the individual pages at the expense of the institutional ones.

Afrim Krasniqi, director of the Institute for Political Studies, criticizes the practice of publishing official acts on social networks, claiming it has effectively “personalized” the state.

Krasniqi says there is cause for concern over the consequences this might have for the documentation of the government’s work.

“Historical memory is ending up on mobile phones or on the personal emails of officials,” Krasniqi said, providing examples of when official conduct was never properly documented elsewhere, except on the personal social media pages of the Prime Minister.

“From a legal aspect, this is a violation of the law, while from an administrative aspect, this is a violation of the rules; from a political aspect, this is an abuse of public office while from a historical aspect this is an investment against the memory of the state and the archives,” Krasniqi said.

Xhemollari, from Qendresa Qytetare, told BIRN that channelling official communications via personal Facebook pages is a reflection of the general practice of the current government, which is based on the individual and not on the institution.

“This communication philosophy creates a party state, individuals that are stronger than institutions, while at the same time it violates the election law and the ethical codes on communication and erodes the rule of law and the transparency of governance,” he said.

However, not all believe in a complete separation between the political leaders and the institutions in terms of communications.

Erla Mehilli, a journalist and former spokesperson of former PM Sali Berisha, told BIRN that while social networks should not replace official channels through which the state communicates to citizens, personal pages can be useful in sharing some informal moments.

Mehilli believes officials cannot be banned from using their personal accounts for official communications, though she also believes that some form of regulation is needed.

“It is not easy to separate the individual from the office that he/she holds. I am not aware whether any law bans an official from using their personal pages along with the official ones for communicating, even for official communications,” she said.

MIA didn’t answer queries from BIRN about what happens with the ministers’ personal pages once they leave office, and have the possibility of using social media created at public expense for their future political careers.

Fuga said the content doesn’t change and is not deleted from these pages. “Such content continues to be accessible for the public in these pages beyond the time of the holding of the office by a minister,” he said.

Political figures targeted in many online spaces

The first half of September saw a flare-up of episodes linked to political motives in different countries.

Serbia, Hungary and North Macedonia are the countries where most such episodes were recorded. This only shows how divisive political clashes and rhetoric remain a major problem in the region.

On September 1, Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić and his sons received death threats via Instagram. A 47-year-old man from Zrenjanin was arrested on suspicion of committing the crime of endangering security in connection with the threats and was placed in pre-trial detention for 48 hours.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic attends a joint press conference with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (not pictured) in Belgrade, Serbia, 07 September 2022. Photo: EPA-EFE/ANDREJ CUKIC

In Hungary, a deceptive video aimed at an MEP started circulating on Facebook on September 6. A video of a band playing a concert in the Parliamentary Assembly building of the Council of Europe was leaked on Facebook in Hungarian falsely claiming to be showing EU politicians “celebrating their salaries” to “Jewish music” – as European citizens face record energy prices.

In another incident, on September 8, a photo supposedly of former Estonian president and activist Mikk Pärnits wearing a women’s pink dress started circulating on Facebook in Hungarian. The image is actually from a 2020 awards ceremony, where the winner wore a women’s dress to raise awareness about domestic violence and sexual abuse.

North Macedonia is the country where the largest number of episodes have occurred. A photomontage of ex-Finance Minister Nina Angelovska, depicturing her with a plate of cake in the shape of a penis, was published on Twitter on September 2. The author wrote: “Dear viewers, this one was a minister in the cabinet of the bonehead from Murtino.”  The “bonehead from Murtino” refers to former prime minister Zoran Zaev.

In North Macedonia, on September 5, a Twitter user posted a print screen of news about a press conference from the President, about the recent security session. Above the print screen, an inscription read: “It occurred to the louse to say that we are bankrupt!”.

Finally, a last incident on September 9 recorded by our monitors saw former PM Zaev being insulted on Facebook, in which Zaev was quoted about a potential referendum. Facebook users used threatening and offensive words about Zaev, such as “Smelly”, “Idiot”, “Shit traitor”, “Traitor soul”, and, “Crazy monster, the only option for you is a knife or a razor and be cut piece by piece.”

Minority and LGBT communities systematically attacked online

Following Serbia’s government ban of the EuroPride 2022 celebration in Belgrade, where right-wing anti-LGBT groups also announced they would march through the Serbian capital, police arrested more than 64 people, after thousands of LGBTQI+ activists turned out for the march, despite the ban.

At the same time, activists and supporters of the LGBT movement, along with various ethnic minorities, were subjected to an increasing number of online attacks on social networks.

A participant during the EuroPride march in Belgrade, Serbia, 17 September 2022. Photo: EPA-EFE/ANDREJ CUKIC

At the end of August, for example, Serbian filmmaker Stevan Filipović and actor Viktor Savić argued on social media about the holding of the EuroPride in Belgrade. The argument ended a friendship of almost 15 years. After the debate, Filipović shared threatening and insulting messages from Savić’s supporters on Instagram.

North Macedonia also saw anti-LGBT incidents. On September 5, a Twitter account posted: “You open your timeline, and what can you see? all the faggots jumping on your dick from early morning. Fuck off, I have romance to tweet about, fuck you, you ass- fucking tribe”. Other users also used similar insulting and threatening words.

Meanwhile, both the country’s Albanian and Roma communities were repeatedly attacked and abused in North Macedonia’s digital environment. Most incidents occurred on Twitter. One user on September 2, addressing the Albanian minority, wrote: “Shiptars, hippers, who don’t pay electricity, don’t pay, will some cheap electricity be able to boil beans for us on Friday?” The following day, another user on Twitter published a post with a picture of a parking ticket from City Mall in Skopje written only in Albanian. Above the picture he wrote: “Boycott Skopje City Mall, they only give receipts in ‘shiptar’ language”.

“Shiptar” is a highly insulting term for Albanians.

Between 16 and 18 September, three different episodes were also recorded on Twitter. First, while sharing a headline from a media outlet that refers to the appointment of ambassadors from North Macedonia, a Twitter user wrote: “Shiptars are messing with the whole country” and referred to “servants of the Shiptar mafia”.

Another Twitter user, referring to reports that the state administration will be filled with Albanians from the diaspora, wrote: “We’ve returned the shippers from the diaspora”. Finally, another Twitter account wrote an offensive post with hate speech towards Albanians, saying that he does not know any country “that loves Shiptars as a minority.

Data leaks, hacking attacks and online scams also recorded

Serbia, Romania, Bosnia, Hungary, and North Macedonia were all hit by cyber-fraud incidents in recent weeks. In fact, cyberattacks targeting IT systems in the whole region continue to endanger many institutional and private actors due to the absence of a prevention system and a political strategy for this purpose.

A source code on a computer in Taipei, Taiwan, 13 May 2017. Photo: EPA-EFE/RITCHIE B. TONGO

On September 4, personal data of more than 500,000 citizens collected since 2008, such as names, surnames, addresses, emails and dates of birth, from a Serbian employment website called Lako do posla were leaked online.

Initial analysis by cybersecurity experts said the data may have been extracted from the database using a security vulnerability on the website. Meanwhile, the Facebook page of the Bosnian online outlet Gracija was hacked last September 7. The announcement of the new edition of the online media was changed into vulgar and misogynistic words. Editors immediately removed the content. Gracija reported: “The cover could have been the reason for this incoherently written insult”. It said it would not censor its content, however, to show what “dirty games” take place during the pre-election period.

In Romania, several online attacks also occurred. A media website from Vaslui, a county on the border with Moldova, was the target of a Flooding/Denial of Service attack. The attacks don’t seem connected, as the IP addresses involved in the attack on the local media outlet were mostly from Asia, while G4Media was targeted through IP addresses mostly from the US. The local media website was left unavailable for more than an hour during the DDoS attack. At the same time, on September 8, G4Media, a Romanian online media known for investigative pieces on the judiciary, was the target of a massive Flooding/Denial of Service DDOS attack. The newsroom said the unknown attackers were likely targeting an investigative piece on a probe into how the judiciary system silenced plagiarism accusations against PM Nicolae Ciuca.

In Hungary, UniCredit Bank issued a warning that fraudsters are acting as buyers for a product advertised on the internet and asking for the sellers’ banking details (internet banking ID/password/banking activation code) by referring to a mail order service.

The information they obtain is then used to make unauthorised credit card purchases and transfers. Another hacking episode was recorded in North Macedonia, where the website of the Ministry of Education and Science was hacked by a Greek hacker group.

The attackers posted their text on the website: “Hacked by the Greek hacker team Netwatchers”. After the attack, the ministry insisted citizens’ data was not at risk.