Serbia – Hackers claimed to have stolen the entire national database

A group of hackers claims to have compromised the national database system stolen all information related to citizens resident in Serbia.

Hackers claim to have data about all citizens in Serbia, if the news is confirmed this is another clamorous data breach that could have serious repercussion on the Government.

It seems that cyber criminals hacked the Serbian State’s network, accessed to the identities of almost all Serbians, which are now exposed to risks of frauds and identity theft.  Five hackers have claimed they hacked the internet backbone of the Serbian Identity system and stolen ID numbers of almost all citizens of Serbia.  Though the has not been confirmed by the Serbian authorities, the hackers have leaked a screenshot of what seems to be details of Serbian citizens.

The crew of cybercriminals that claim for the attack on the State’s network of Serbia is composed of five hackers that claimed that they violated the internet backbone of the Serbian Identity system and stolen ID numbers of almost all citizens of the country. An the time I’m writing, the Government of Serbia hasn’t confirmed the data breach, meanwhile the hackers have leaked online a screenshot of the alleged list displaying data of Serbian citizens.

The hackers have announced the data breach via email to the Serbian daily Blic, as reported also by the news portal InSerbia.

“We have whole Serbia in our hand. We have almost all information about the Serbian citizens starting from ID numbers to what they do, where they work, live, their phone numbers”. is reported in the email. 

The image reporting a table of the Serbian national archive was attached to the email, it contains data of Serbian citizens living in different cities of the country.

The hackers seem to be Serbians that protest against national cyber police because it is more interested in the persecution of national hackers instead Albanian cyber criminal crews.

“We show this information in public for many reasons. The first and main reason is that our cyber police chases exclusively Serbian hackers while it ignores Albanian hackers. Now they will have more than specific reason to look for us, but they will waste their time,” states the email.

The hackers have alleged also other motivations to the patriotic attack, they declared to have hit the national database also to demonstrate that the Serbian cyber system is vulnerable.

“The third reason is that the state sees, and after multiple warnings realizes, that the security of the system is weak and that they should take more care about it,” the e-mail reads.

If the data breach is confirmed, the possible consequences for the population are dramatic. Unaware people could be targeted by cyber criminals that could be used the stolen data for illegal activities. The economic impact is severe, something similar happened to South Korea, where national ID system was compromised, causing the exposure of as much as 80 per cent of the population.

Modernizing the whole nation system will have a great economic impact, it would cost to the South Korea about $650m.

Stay tuned for further info.

Pierluigi Paganini

(Security Affairs –  Serbia, cybercrime)