External cyberattacks during Second Karabakh War mainly focused on Azerbaijan’s Central Bank – CERT

By Trend

The target of external cyber-attacks during the 44-day second Karabakh war [from late Sept. to early Nov. 2020], was mainly focused on the Central Bank of Azerbaijan (CBA), the head of the State Service for Special Communications and Information Security, the Center for Combating Computer Incidents (CERT) of Azerbaijan Tural Mammadov said at the 5th International Banking Forum in Baku, Trend reports.

According to Mammadov, cyberattacks were also carried out on the banking structures of Azerbaijan.

"All these cyber threats were successfully eliminated, and no failures occurred in the systems of the CBA and Azerbaijani banks. In addition, DDoS (distributed denial-of-service) attacks were carried out against us. They were blocked by us. A system has been activated to prevent this type of cyberattack," he said.

Also, Mammadov said that Armenian cybercriminals carried out phishing attacks. Thus, letters were sent on behalf of the management of banks and the Association of Banks of Azerbaijan.

"Our service monitored all these offenses, and information about them was transmitted to special departments. Also, fake information was spread about the alleged hacking and obtaining data from Azerbaijani banks and government agencies, which we denied," Mammadov said.