VUCIC REVEALs: More than two million cyber attacks against Serbia in August - EPS and Cadastre suffered damage

Photo: Tanjug

President Aleksandar Vucic stated today that in August, there were more than two million cyber attacks against state and public infrastructure in Serbia and that these attacks came from various countries.

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He also stated that data in the State Data Center was safe, but that damage was caused to EPS (state electric utility company), and the Real Estate Cadastre service.

At the opening of the House of eGovernment and the creative-innovative, multifunctional and digital center Lozionica, Vucic said these were the biggest and most extensive cyber attacks against the state institutions of Serbia so far, and that there are usually 70,000 to 300,000 such attacks (per month).

The president pointed out that everything that was stored in the State Data Center was safe, but that damage was done to EPS, the Cadastre, and the Ministry of Justice - because they do not store data in the Data Center.

"That is why the Data Center is very important. It's not a problem if they don't want to keep data there, but they will be arrested if there is a blackout, like in Spain, the Czech Republic and elsewhere, and they hadn't stored data in the Data Center. We have the ability to store it there, it provides much greater protection than others can through their software systems," Vucic stressed.

He added that cyber attacks in August came from different countries, such as Chile, Mexico, Russia, the US, and others.

"But two million attacks is the hardest, most extensive, biggest attack against our digital infrastructure," said Vucic.

He pointed out that the State Data Center in Kragujevac, where a second supercomputer will be installed by the end of the year, is importsnt for that city, for employment, but that electricity usage will be a problem.

"There will be a huge problem with electricity and electricity costs. We have to work on that, see how to expand the capacities in Kragujevac, but also for the whole of Serbia. We must make sure to provide additional electricity capacities for Kragujevac and we have to do that very quickly," stressed Vucic.

Director of the Office for IT and eGovernment Mihailo Jovanovic announced today that a call to young engineers and final year students from the IT sector will be published and stated that artificial intelligence, information and security experts are needed.

(Telegraf.rs/Tanjug)