The Hungarian authorities lied about the large-scale Russian hacking attack on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs being a hoax, media reports

Journalists asked the head of the Hungarian Foreign Ministry to comment on this situation.

Hungarian journalists have gained access to internal documents that show the Hungarian government was aware of a cyber attack on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that took place two years ago, which was probably carried out by Russian hackers. This is reported by 444.hu , “European Truth” reports .

The mass media were able to obtain documents that prove that more than two years ago, hackers associated with the special services of the Russian Federation carried out a large-scale cyber attack on the systems of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the country, with the help of which they could obtain very valuable data.

However, when this event first became known in March 2022, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and several politicians from the ruling party denied such an incident. However, now the journalists managed to get a document, which says that there was a cyber attack after all, and that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was aware of this problem.

Excerpt from the document confirming the Russian cyber attack / photo 444.hu

It was also reported that in September 2021, the head of the National Security Service, who is responsible for the technical security of other agencies, submitted a report assessing the digital infrastructure of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It says email, servers and at least some of the devices involved in the user identification process were compromised, including administrator accounts with the highest level of access.

Technically, it can be understood that cybercriminals could see letters, files, personal data of employees of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and a lot of other closed information. In addition, the author of the report adds that the cyber attack may be linked to the groups APT 28, which cooperates with Russian military intelligence, and APT 29, which has ties to the FSB.

In turn, the journalists directly asked the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Peter Szijarto, about this cyber attack, to which he replied that he knew nothing about the hacking of the agency’s system by hackers.

After such a response, the journalists stated that they had the report, to which Sijarto pointed out that the competent departments had most likely done everything necessary to eliminate the threat, and doubted that the media had obtained such a document legally.

According to the journalists, they checked their sources and the authenticity of the document, which is not covered by the legislation on the protection of classified documents.

Latest news from Hungary

As UNIAN wrote, Prime Minister of Hungary Viktor Orban said that his country supports China’s peace plan regarding the war in Ukraine .

“Today, Europe is on the side of war, the only exception is Hungary, which calls for an immediate ceasefire and peace talks, and also supports all international efforts aimed at peace,” he emphasized during a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

In turn, Orbán previously announced that Hungary will increase defense spending next year if the war in Ukraine continues until 2025. He reproached that this will reduce the amount of funds that could have gone to other expenses.

(C)UNIAN 2024