Albania has announced that it has decided to cut diplomatic relations with Iran in response to the cyber attack on its digital infrastructure in July.
In a video message shared on his social media account, Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama explained the government’s decision to cut diplomatic relations with Iran.
Noting that their in-depth investigation has provided “irrefutable evidence that the cyber-attack against his country was perpetrated and supported by the Islamic Republic of Iran”, Rama said:
“Last July 15, our country was the target of a massive cyber attack aimed at destroying the digital infrastructure of the government of the Republic of Albania, paralyzing public services and stealing data and electronic communications from government systems. The attack did not achieve its goal. The damages can be considered minor compared to those targeted by the attacker. The systems were restored and nothing was irretrievably lost.”
Stating that the Albanian Council of Ministers decided to immediately sever diplomatic relations with the Islamic Republic of Iran, Rama noted that this was communicated to the Iranian Embassy with an official note and that all diplomatic and technical-administrative personnel, including security personnel, were requested to leave the territory of the Republic of Albania within 24 hours.
Stating that Iran engaged four groups for the cyber attack against Albania, Rama said, “Among them was one of the most notorious groups of international cyber terrorism, one of the perpetrators or co-perpetrators of cyber attacks previously carried out against Israel, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Cyprus (Greek Cyprus). We have informed our strategic partners, our partners in NATO and some friendly countries and shared the unquestionable results of the investigation that proved the source of the aggression against our country.”
Rama added that this extreme measure, which was undesirable but completely necessary, was in full proportion to the seriousness and danger of the cyber-attack, as it was aimed at paralyzing public services in his country, wiping systems and deleting government data, stealing electronic communications within the government system and provoking insecurity and chaos in the country.
In his video message, the Albanian Prime Minister did not provide any information about the cause of the cyber attack.
Albanian authorities announced in July that the country had been subjected to a major cyber attack suspected to have been synchronized and carried out from abroad.
Following the detection of the attack, Albania’s National Agency for Information Society temporarily closed access to online public services and some government websites, before later reopening them.
