Russian hackers attack Romanian government websites on presidential election day

This was reported by Politico, Ukrinform saw.

It is noted that the cyberattack affected the websites of the Constitutional Court, the main government portal, and the website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The perpetrators also targeted the websites of four presidential candidates, including Crin Antonescu, who is supported by Romania's ruling parties, and Bucharest Mayor Nicosor Dan, who was running as an independent candidate.

The hackers later claimed responsibility for the cyberattack on their Telegram channel, listing the platforms that had been attacked.

Romania’s National Cybersecurity Directorate said the websites listed by the group were already up and running as of 14:00 local time.

The cyberattack occurred on the day the country held the first round of a repeat presidential election.

The country’s Constitutional Court annulled the first round of last year’s election amid accusations that the winner of that round, low-profile ultranationalist Călin Georgescu, was involved in illegal campaigning and had his ratings pumped up by potential Russian influence.

According to declassified Romanian intelligence reports, more than 85,000 cyberattacks were carried out on the Romanian electoral commission’s IT system on and after the election last November.

As Ukrinform reported, Romanian far-right leader George Simion won the first round of the presidential election by a wide margin.

With ballots counted from almost 99.6% of polling stations, Bucharest Mayor Nicosor Dan, 55, came in second with 21%, behind Simion, who sealed 40.6% of the popular vote.