Russian cyber crime gang blamed for attacking Montenegro’s government institutions
The Zerodate virus shattered Montenegro’s IT infrastructure
150 work stations in 10 of Montenegro’s state institutions experienced cyber attacks. The attacks were linked with the Russia-based criminal group called Cuba ransomware.
Maras Dukaj, Public Administration Minister, told the public that the group had created a virus called Zerodate. The extent of any data theft is still uncertain, however, the affected sites were closed ever since the attack took place.
Montenegro’s parliament claims that Cuba ransomware has obtained “financial documents, correspondence with bank employees, account movements, balance sheets, tax documents.”
However, it later claimed that no data from the parliament’s system has been obtained, because its system fully recovered and all of the information snatched by the group has actually been publicly accessible.
Montenegro’s interior ministry claimed that it had requested the assistance of the US Federal Bureau for Investigation’s (FBI) Cyber Action Teams to help it investigate the attacks.
