Pierluigi Paganini October 28, 2019

A wave of cyber attacks hit 2,000 websites in Georgia, including the sites of the president, courts, and local media.

A mysterious wave of cyber attacks hit some 2,000 websites in Georgia, including the websites of the president, courts, and media.

The news was confirmed by a spokeswoman for the President Salome Zurabishvili’s that told AFP agency that the President’s website was “attacked by hackers this afternoon.”

According to Georgia’s Interpress news agency, the hackers targeted the websites for Georgia’s general jurisdiction courts, government agencies, NGOs and media outlets.

Local authorities immediately launched an investigation into the cyber attacks.

“Law enforcement agencies are investigating the incident,” Sopho Jajanashvili said.

According to Interpress media, the websites were defaced by the hackers that published a picture of Georgia’s exiled former president Mikheil Saakashvili with the message “I’ll be back!”.

Mikheil was the third President of Georgia for two consecutive terms from 25 January 2004 to 17 November 2013.

He was barred by the constitution of Georgia from seeking a third term in the 2013 presidential election, which was won by the Georgian Dream’s candidate Giorgi Margvelashvili. Shortly after the election, Saakashvili left Georgia. Saakashvili is wanted by Georgia’s new government on multiple criminal charges, which he decries as politically motivated.

Many officials of the Mikheils’ government have been jailed after the 2012 parliamentary elections.

At the time of writing, there are no other details on the attacks, for this reason it is impossible to attribute them to a threat actor.

Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – Georgia, hacking)

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