DISINFO: 2019 cyberattack against Georgia didn’t originate from Russia
SUMMARY
The Russian Foreign Ministry denied Tbilisi’s accusations that Russia carried out cyberattacks against Georgia last year.
RESPONSE
Georgia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced at a special press-conference on February 20th that a massive cyber-attack on a Georgian server was carried out by Russia.
This was followed by statements from the US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, the US Embassy, the UK, the Kingdom of Netherlands, Australia and Poland, condemning Russia's cyberattack on Georgia.
The EU has stated that this attack showed disregard for security and stability in cyberspace and undermined the development of political, social and economic benefits provided by the Internet and the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs).
On October 28th 2019, over 15,000 government, non-profit and private websites were hacked in Georgia. The websites displayed the photo of Georgia’s ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili with the words “I’ll be back”. Later on, Atlantic Council’s DFR Lab established that the file injected by the hackers contained malicious code.