At least three key intelligence sources of the Reuters news agency said Turkey was behind a wave of cyberattacks targeting several governments and government agencies in Europe, including Albania.
The attacks have involved Internet traffic intercepts by targeted victims, which has provided Turkish hackers with access to networks of government structures.
"Albania's State Intelligence Service (ASIS) is among the targeted countries," the sources said. Turkey has seized hundreds of usernames and passwords of the Albanian intelligence service, as one of the cybersecurity investigators told Reuters. ASIS, on the other hand, is said to have considered the targets targeted by the Turkish attacks as unclassified as infrastructure, adding that they did not keep 'any classified information' and 'no state secrets of any level".
As it is learned, the entities that carried out the attacks are not directly identified with the Turkish government, but according to two British officials and another American who have been investigating the case, there are clear signs that it is a state-sponsored cyber espionage operation aimed at advancing of the Turkish interests. The attacks have taken place since early 2018.
Iraq, Greece, Cyprus are among the governments attacked besides Albania. The Turkish Ministry of Internal Affairs declined to comment on the matter.
The former head of the State Intelligence Service, Mr. Fatos Klosi. Invited to the Euronews Albania studio, the former head of ASIS said that the information reported by the Reuters news agency should be taken into consideration.
“Any information should be considered. The services are taken into consideration as a whole and of course then after treating this information, whether or not they were true, to what extent they were true. As information to considered.
“There are no friends in these jobs. Everyone works for himself. Then friendship makes some of what information you know, to transmit to another, but never the whole. This is logical and this is tradition. Every country no matter how friendly they are, has what it learns from another country about its interests of course. When I first heard the news, telling me the truth, I was surprised. Where did this came from? Since neither of the two services, whether Albanian or Turk, has any interest in telling this. The turkish has done it, the Albanian would be better off getting away with not knowing and continuing to work out what the truth is, but we must believe to Reuters, but also to some extent.
These services-related things are generally not commented on. It makes no sense to comment, as all the service work is secret. They try to keep their secrets. Any comment would be an endorsement or not an endorsement on the problem." said Mr. Klosi.
Asked how vulnerable Albania is to cyberattacks, Mr. Klosi said that our country is more exposed than other countries because it has a new experience in the field of computing.
"It is pretty, as hackers have managed to break even very important codes of important institutions. Albania in this regard certainly has more problems than other countries as they are advanced in computing.
For the things we know better than the other, for all areas, crime, terrorism, political situation, there are problems that the neighbors are particularly interested in what is happening in Albania. We too have things we don't like the others to know.” Klos.
The attacks have involved Internet traffic intercepts by targeted victims, which has provided Turkish hackers with access to networks of government structures.
"Albania's State Intelligence Service (ASIS) is among the targeted countries," the sources said. Turkey has seized hundreds of usernames and passwords of the Albanian intelligence service, as one of the cybersecurity investigators told Reuters. ASIS, on the other hand, is said to have considered the targets targeted by the Turkish attacks as unclassified as infrastructure, adding that they did not keep 'any classified information' and 'no state secrets of any level".
As it is learned, the entities that carried out the attacks are not directly identified with the Turkish government, but according to two British officials and another American who have been investigating the case, there are clear signs that it is a state-sponsored cyber espionage operation aimed at advancing of the Turkish interests. The attacks have taken place since early 2018.
Iraq, Greece, Cyprus are among the governments attacked besides Albania. The Turkish Ministry of Internal Affairs declined to comment on the matter.
The former head of the State Intelligence Service, Mr. Fatos Klosi. Invited to the Euronews Albania studio, the former head of ASIS said that the information reported by the Reuters news agency should be taken into consideration.
“Any information should be considered. The services are taken into consideration as a whole and of course then after treating this information, whether or not they were true, to what extent they were true. As information to considered.
“There are no friends in these jobs. Everyone works for himself. Then friendship makes some of what information you know, to transmit to another, but never the whole. This is logical and this is tradition. Every country no matter how friendly they are, has what it learns from another country about its interests of course. When I first heard the news, telling me the truth, I was surprised. Where did this came from? Since neither of the two services, whether Albanian or Turk, has any interest in telling this. The turkish has done it, the Albanian would be better off getting away with not knowing and continuing to work out what the truth is, but we must believe to Reuters, but also to some extent.
These services-related things are generally not commented on. It makes no sense to comment, as all the service work is secret. They try to keep their secrets. Any comment would be an endorsement or not an endorsement on the problem." said Mr. Klosi.
Asked how vulnerable Albania is to cyberattacks, Mr. Klosi said that our country is more exposed than other countries because it has a new experience in the field of computing.
"It is pretty, as hackers have managed to break even very important codes of important institutions. Albania in this regard certainly has more problems than other countries as they are advanced in computing.
For the things we know better than the other, for all areas, crime, terrorism, political situation, there are problems that the neighbors are particularly interested in what is happening in Albania. We too have things we don't like the others to know.” Klos.