I am proud that Romania has fulfilled (especially on the occasion of these two incidents) its promise to fight and counter ransomware by denying attackers access to finance their activities or gain fame or recognition for their illegal activities. Simply put, we do not pay ransom for cyber attacks and we do not negotiate on this issue, Dan Cimpean, manager of the National Cyber Security Directorate (DNSC) said in a post on his Linkedin account.

DNSC has proven its ability to activate, coordinate and collaborate both with victims of cyber attacks and with actors from the governmental and private sectors involved in responding to cyber attacks, Cimpean added.

Referring to the two cyber attacks that in recent weeks targeted the Chamber of Deputies and the national health system, Dan Cimpean emphasized that DNSC managed to deal with the situation without activating the EU-CyCLONE mechanism, the European mechanism that contributes to the implementation of the European Commission's plan for rapid response in emergency situations in the event of a large-scale cross-border cyber incident or crisis.

"I'm delighted to have proven that we can handle major cyber incidents with teams working remotely and using technology to communicate and respond. Having everyone physically in one room is an outdated way of thinking and no longer the best way to work for cyber professionals," the DNSC manager said.

The DNSC head also wanted to thank the support given by the national and international media in recent weeks for the professional way in which they managed the communication regarding the cyber attacks.
"I have to admit that without this support it would have been difficult to transmit DNSC instructions and messages at the right time and with the strongest impact," Dan Cimpean added.

On January 30, there was a cyber security breach at the Chamber of Deputies, 316 files with a total volume of 300 megabytes were extracted, some personal documents, some data related to the electronic devices of the parliamentarians. And the website of the National Cyber Security Directorate was the target of a cyber attack on the night of Tuesday to Wednesday (January 30/31, 2024), but without affecting its operation.

Moreover, on the night of February 11 to 12, 2024, a ransomware-type cyber attack took place on the Romanian Soft Company (RSC) www.rsc.ro, which develops, administers and markets the Hipocrate IT system (aka HIS). According to DNSC data, the attack disrupted the activity of 26 hospitals in Romania that use this system.AGERPRES(RO - author: Constantin Balaban, editor: Mariana Nica; EN - editor: Maria Voican)