A hacker has reportedly wiped out parts of the land registry database of Romania, bringing its real-estate market to a shuddering halt
A hacker using the alias ByteToBreach has breached Romania’s cadastre (land registry) and reportedly wiped portions of its database, causing significant disruption to the country’s real-estate market. The attacker gained unauthorized access using valid credentials and successfully exfiltrated sensitive data from the servers. After a failed extortion attempt, the hacker proceeded to delete information from the databases. The stolen data has been announced for sale on multiple online forums.
ByToBreach is believed to be responsible for several major cyberattacks, including a previous breach of the Swedish government’s e-portal earlier this year. This pattern suggests a sophisticated threat actor targeting government infrastructure across multiple countries.
Authorities have indicated that backup systems are in the process of being restored to mitigate the damage and restore access to the land registry. The incident has temporarily halted real-estate transactions that rely on the registry database, highlighting the critical importance of cybersecurity infrastructure for government digital services.