Hacker Wipes Romania's Entire Land Registry Database (cybernews.com)
- Reference: 0184526274
- News link: https://it.slashdot.org/story/26/07/20/172249/hacker-wipes-romanias-entire-land-registry-database
- Source link: https://cybernews.com/security/hacker-deletes-romanian-land-registry-database/
> First, the hacker breached Romania's cadastre agency, the National Agency for Cadastre and Real Estate Advertising (ANCPI), posting on a hacking forum: "[RO] Thy arss shall be spanked, Romania! [ANCPI]." "In addition to the data of Romanian citizens, from various databases collected through ANCPI networks, there is also a copy of the GitLab servers containing the source code of all their systems, such as Eterra, RENNS, as well as a version of my little ransomware program," the announcement continued.
>
> "The official government website announced a shutdown of IT systems due to 'technical problems,' but this is a bit of an understatement. An offer of assistance was made, but without insistence or pressure." Indeed, the ANCPI initially claimed technical issues but had to admit it was facing a cyberattack. Today, no one can really access the institution's systems. And since the extortion didn't work, the hacker -- who seems to have entered the database using valid credentials -- deleted all data they had stolen, including internal documents, employee credentials, and, of course, land registry data.
[1] https://cybernews.com/security/hacker-deletes-romanian-land-registry-database/
[2] https://www.ancpi.ro/
The cloud is someone elses computer (Score:1)
The fact that governments don't maintain offline backups should concern voters.
In the summary (Score:3)
> It appears that the agency has an offline copy of the wiped data.
Re: In the summary (Score:3)
They actually do.
The whole system used to be paper based until few years ago. My guess is they'll be going back to the paper version for a few days/weeks.
But for obvious reasons, it's more practical to repair the digital version and resume operations ASAP.
Re: (Score:1)
If the new stuff is backed by paper stuff (showing the same data), and the digital records are backed up on a tape drive/library, it shouldn't be a massive problem.
The paper stuff is at one location along with the meatsacks administering stuff, the tape backup is someplace else... even if it's just scans of files or decent cell phone pics, that's good enough to reconstruct everything from.
An office that doesn't have backups is destined for a bad time.
If you're relying on Cloud backups... have that cloud bac
Re: In the summary (Score:3)
In South Africaâ(TM)s capital the building that contained all the property data burned down about 10 years ago. Since that was not digitized yet is was and still is a major problem
heading towards a success story? (Score:4, Interesting)
> It appears that the agency has an offline copy of the wiped data.
Seems like this is heading towards a success story? Critical systems hacked and data lost. System rebuilt from scratch and data restored. Temporary service outage during rebuild/restore.
Yeah, preventing the intrusion would have been a better success story, but the above is also a success.
Re: The cloud is someone elses computer (Score:1)
Even if they had an offline backup, if you never test/practice your restore process the backup can still be useless. Disater mitigation is serious business and now that a lot of companies don't host their stuff in-house it seems to have taken a back seat to cost reductions.
Re: (Score:2)
The fact that you do not grasp that "insert random agency" is not the government should concern the people who have stakes in you.
Re: (Score:2)
And many sysadmins think that their on-premise servers are immune from hacking. In my experience, self-hosted servers are much less protected than cloud servers. This is because most companies that self-host, refuse to spend the money required to implement real security measures.
Cost of mitigation (Score:2)
When faced with the "cost" of such an outcome how much does mitigation worth to you?
Friendly word to business owners and senior managers; if you haven't tested your ransomwate recovery mechanism and proved it works just assume there is none.
...and no I don't know the details but I can tell you it was preventable.
Re: (Score:2)
The cost of mitigation isn't that large even. Way back when, I helped build a backup for a system holding critical data that had a far greater transaction volume than the typical cadastre ever will. The system was pretty basic and cheap to build and operate, basically a daily incremental backup written on immutable media, along with a printout of each transaction. This was before ransomware was even a thing, though hacking was already a concern and part of the reason the customer wanted this system (the
Re: (Score:1)
Tape is great!
Have the tape drive backup program just watching for changed files from a group of programs, and if there's changes, it needs a password to start copying to the tape library or drive (whatever). The tape drive or library is either offsite or in building (but safe from anything that could get onto the companies network), and as soon as that ransomware screen pops up, kick the power button on the power strip (or yank the power cable to the computer).
If it's accessible online, connected to the '
Also Slovakia (Score:2)
The Slovakian land registry also got hacked 2 years ago. I wonder if they are using the same software.
Kafka (Score:1)
Someone call Land Surveyor K. There's now an entire country to survey. His training may finally be useful.
Sounds like they werent as tough as they thought (Score:2)
Sounds like they werent as tough as they thought. Everytime the DMV dicks around a citizen, I always wonder who among the crowd "possess certain skills" and get tired of it. I'm glad someone got a point back for their side.
Wasted opportunity! (Score:2)
If they were smart then they would have simply sold land to people on a legit looking website and changed the ownership database. If you are morally bankrupt then you should at least avoid being intellectually bankrupt.
Try that with paper and microfiche! (Score:2)
Just saying .. an off-site backup is very good for such data!
They're Russian (Score:2, Flamebait)
100% guarantee. They hate Romania.
Re: They're Russian (Score:2, Flamebait)
Nuke them. It is time to change Russia into a green glass surface
Re: (Score:3)
> Nuke them. It is time to change Russia into a green glass surface
Most Russians don't support the current regime and are a victim of the current government. They deserve to be nuked for that?
Re: (Score:1)
Citation needed
Re: (Score:3)
Sure - it's not easy to get clear, unbiased answers when the country is ruled by fear and an iron fist. But some polling data has shown only 1/3rd of Russians said they would likely vote for the Party Unified Russia. So that means 65% - a vast majority - wouldn't say who they would vote for or would vote for someone else (https://wciom.com/our-news/ratings/rating-of-political-parties).
Still nuke-able?
Re: (Score:2)
And which part of the USA is also going to be a piece of radioactive glass ?
Iran has shown that US military can not even shoot down drones with 100% accuracy.
Then comes the problem that every other nuclear armed country will fire theirs as "pre-emptive self defence"
Let me guess, you have watched Bear Grills and think you can become a survival warrior instantly....ROTFLMAO.