The ransomware attack created serious problems on a large number of terminals and the problem has not been resolved at the Ministry, to this day!
According to secure information made public to SecNews editors, a service of the Ministry of Culture was today subjected to a very serious ransomware-type malware attack.
Specifically, the employees of the central service of the Ministry of Culture related to work on important monuments (ed. We do not mention for obvious reasons of journalistic ethics and mainly because the attack is still ongoing), opening their computers this morning, were faced with the most unpleasant surprise. Over 50 terminals of the service had been affected by malicious software and it was found that ALL their files were encrypted and non-functional.
In addition, a very important database that the Ministry's executives handled in their daily lives was targeted during the attack and rendered non-functional!
As we were informed during the report, there were NO backups on many of the users' terminals, resulting in the files being completely lost, while the Ministry's executives are now trying to restore the database to a functional form!
The above in itself is food for thought but also additional research into whether the required measures against such cyberattacks existed and were being successfully implemented.
Is the newly arrived Minister and now distinguished actress Ms. Lydia Koniordou or her staff aware of and going to take measures regarding the incident in question?
Ransomware is one of the fastest growing types of cyber attacks. It attacks a victim's device, encrypts their data, and then demands money (such as bitcoin) to unlock the data on the affected device.
According to the same secure information, as of the time of writing, no ransom messages have been sent requesting sums of money to release the terminals and decrypt the data.
We await with particular interest any developments and will inform you of anything new that comes to our attention.
