Albania announced last week it was severing ties with Iran after discovering it was behind devastating attacks against the country in July. However, following Albania’s announcement, the country suffered fresh cyberattacks over the weekend which affected border control.
The latest cyber-attack on Albanian institutions caused queues on border points during the weekend, where the registration of citizens and vehicles entering and leaving the country had to be done manually.
Prime Minister Edi Rama said the latest cyber-attack “was made by the same aggressors”, meaning Iran.
These attacks on Albania have brought the country to a standstill, so it is not surprising the government chose to publicly announce their intention to cut ties with the designated culprit, Iran.
However, it seems in retaliation, the country is now facing further attacks which are causing more disruptions.
This is yet another reminder that the consequences of cyberattacks today are far from just digital.
Instead, physical functions come to a halt which have a major impact on society.
This means the focus should be on the prevention of cyberattacks, rather than their remediation. One way to prevent those attacks is take back control of network access through the implementation of access encryption and segmentation.
We all know, credentials offer criminals the keys to the digital kingdom, but if organisations encrypt their access, their credentials cannot be stolen or phished since their employees do not know them.
This closes important doors on attackers, while also giving organisations back control of their data.