During Tuesday, the Ministry of Economy (MH) of the Slovak Republic identified a suspected cyber incident targeting departmental information systems. The intrusion attempt was detected in time and no data was encrypted in the incident, the ministry announced on social media on Tuesday evening.
It declared that immediately after the detection of suspicious activities, in cooperation with the National Security Office (NSB) and the government unit CSIRT, they took technical and organizational measures in order to secure the department’s systems and prevent the possible further spread of the incident, as well as to preserve the evidentiary material necessary for an objective investigation of the event.
„We are cooperating with internal and external cyber security experts on the investigation of the incident, including the aforementioned relevant state authorities, such as the NBU and the government unit CSIRT. In this regard, we assure you that we are proceeding in accordance with standard security processes and without causing panic,” stated MH. It announced that it would inform about further developments and the results of the investigation through its official communication channels.
„To reassure the public – all data for the calculation of addressed energy aid are run in information systems managed by the Ministry of the Interior of the Slovak Republic. Outside the information systems of the Ministry of Economy of the Slovak Republic,” added the department. The Minister of Investments, Regional Development and Informatization Samuel Migaľ (independent) also informed about the cyber attack on MH servers on the social network on Tuesday evening. He declared that the government’s cyber unit CSIRT, in cooperation with SK-CERT, is intervening in the MoH SR in this context. He did not provide further information so as not to jeopardize the ongoing investigation.
