14 DAY TRIAL // The home page of the General Inspectorate of Romanian Police was hacked by the local Anonymous group, who posted a message on the News Section.
“Greetings gentlemen. We are Anonymous. We are Legion. We are THE ROMANIAN PEOPLE or, of course, ‘ciumpalacii.’ Wake up, Romania!” reads the message posted by the hackers. “Ciumpalaci” is a local derogatory term that was once used by politicians when talking about the protesting masses.
The message appeared earlier today in an unauthorized post in the news section. It looks like the security breach only affected the site’s interface. Officers are already investigating the matter.
“This morning, upon visiting the website of the General Inspectorate of Romanian Police (IGPR) an unauthorized post appeared. The site’s interface was the only thing affected by the breach, not the rest of the content,” the Romanian Police said.
The affected website contains public data and information, but it’s not connected in any way to the police database. Therefore, the hackers of the Anonymous group didn’t manage to modify or take any valuable information, although that may be because they didn’t want to. Anonymous has been known for its skilled hackers and have proved many times over that if they want to prove a point, they will do so.
Anonymous and the Romanian authorities
Anonymous hasn’t been extremely active in Romania, although some attacks took place a few years back. The local site of the International Monetary Fund was hacked back in February 2012 by a group claiming to represent the Anonymous hacktivists and the Antisec group. Two days prior another attack affected the site of the National Agency for Energy Regulation (ANRE).
The site’s functionality wasn’t affected as a whole, but the home page did host a one-minute YouTube video of Anonymous and the “Hacked by Anonymous” classic message.
Local authorities claim that Anonymous Romania has been quite active in what they call criminal online activity. That covers illegally accessing IT systems, obtaining confidential data or information that was not meant for public eyes, and so on.
Earlier this year, George Maior, the head of the Romanian Intelligence Service, was hacked by the famous Guccifer who previously revealed details about an alleged extramarital affair between Colin Powell, the US Secretary of State, and Romanian diplomat and politician Corina Cretu. Maior’s Yahoo account was breached at the time.
Guccifer has since been arrested, tried and sentenced by a Romanian court and will serve four years in prison. In the US, Marcel Lehel Lazar, the man behind the nickname, was indicted in the United States.