Moldova probes possible foreign role in government data breach

Moldova is investigating whether foreign state actors were behind a major cyberattack on government systems that exposed sensitive personal data and disrupted dozens of public services, Prime Minister Vasile Tofan said, according to local media reports.

"Our country is the target of coordinated and large-scale cyberattacks. We are not talking about an isolated incident," Tofan said. He added that authorities were examining possible foreign involvement. Moldova has not publicly attributed the attack to any country or hacking group.

The statement came a day after the Electronic Governance Agency (AGE) said attackers exploited vulnerabilities in government services to pull large volumes of personal information between October 19 and 23. The agency said the hackers made roughly 11 million data requests and that preliminary findings point to information linked to about 750,000 identification numbers being extracted, though not every affected person had all categories of data exposed.

The agency said the exposed data may include names, birth details, family relationships, health insurance status, benefits, pensions, disability records, driver's licenses, photographs and vehicle ownership, and possibly some financial information. It said bank card data was not compromised and investigators found no evidence that official records were altered.

According to AGE, the attackers exploited services that did not require authentication, then used what they obtained to reach interconnected systems. Authorities inspected 82 digital public services and temporarily disconnected vulnerable ones, along with more than 30 government information systems and administrative panels, affecting services such as construction permits and medicine import applications.

Officials said they blocked unauthorized access on October 23 and detected further unsuccessful attempts on Sunday and Tuesday. The government warned that stolen data could be used in impersonation fraud. A spokesperson said the incident could be part of a broader campaign of hybrid attacks against Moldova.