After the theft of data of over 750.000 citizens, the Government announces changes in digital security. Prime Minister Tofan: "The most important thing we need to rebuild is people's trust"

The government announces urgent measures and structural changes in the cybersecurity system, following the massive attack that affected the state's digital infrastructure and led to the extraction of personal data of over 750.000 citizens. Prime Minister Vasile Tofan called on the responsible institutions to close the vulnerabilities, safely restore public services and strengthen their response capacity in the face of new attacks. Currently, 61 digital services have been restored, while another 21 remain unavailable, reports Radio Chisinau.

The Prime Minister paid a visit today to the Electronic Governance Agency (AGE), in the context of the transfer of management duties from Nicoleta Colomeeț to Artiom Cociu. Representatives of the institutions responsible for the functioning and security of the state's digital infrastructure also participated in the discussions.

"I also called my colleagues from STISC, ASC, ASP and the other institutions that hold the state's digital infrastructure together. My message was simple: we have lost people's trust and now we must rebuild it. This is not the time to waste our energy looking for culprits. Responsibilities will be clarified separately. Now the priority is to fix it - to close the vulnerabilities, restore services safely and better prepare for the next attacks. In recent days, teams from these institutions have worked almost non-stop, in difficult conditions, sometimes with resources and technologies below the level of those used against us. I thank them for their effort and for keeping the systems running and working to restore services.", said Vasile Tofan.

Beyond immediate interventions, the Head of Government also announced the need for system changes, from a clearer delineation of responsibilities to the modernization of technologies used to protect the state's infrastructure.

“From now on, all institutions must work in the same direction, as one team. We need to make structural changes: better governance, clear responsibilities, stronger security architecture and access to state-of-the-art technologies. Attacks already use artificial intelligence. And a strong AI can only be fought with an even better AI. We have a lot to fix. But the most important thing we need to rebuild is people's trust in the digital state.”, pointed out Vasile Tofan.

Meanwhile, AGE announced that 61 digital public services have been restored and can be accessed through the evo.gov.md portal. Another 21 services remain temporarily unavailable, and their re-operation will be gradual, after the completion of security checks.

The massive cyberattack on the government's digital infrastructure occurred between October 19 and 23. As a result, hackers extracted the personal data of over 750.000 citizens.

Authorities stated that no unauthorized changes were made to state registers and assured that bank card data was not compromised.