A Huge Cyber Attack Hit Thousands of Websites in Georgia

The country of Georgia on Monday has faced a massive cyber attack that has afflicted thousands of websites as well as the national media stations. The attack hit the president, courts, several mayors' offices, and three television channels. And in many cases, website home pages were replaced with an image of former President Mikheil Saakashvili, with the caption, "I'll be back".

Since 2008, it was the largest cyber attack in the country, when Russia was suspected to have launched an assault as the two nations were briefly going to war with each other, according to the reports. However, on this latest cyber-attack, cybersecurity experts said that the action was not very sophisticated but it shows the weakness of Georgia's cybersecurity.

In the breach, more than 2,000 websites, including non-government organizations and private companies, were targeted. However, the origin of the attack is not yet identified.

A cybersecurity expert at Surrey University, Prof Alan Woodward said, "The scale of this attack is something we haven't seen before. With the scale and the nature of the targets, it's difficult not to conclude that this was a state-sponsored attack." He further said that while the disruption caused had been significant, critical national infrastructure did not appear to have been affected.

A Georgian hosting company, Pro-Service also reported that the breach to its system led to the disruption of clients' websites. On the other hand, about half of the sites in Georgia had been restored by early a day later of the attack. Taking this into the note, Georgia's interior ministry had launched an investigation.

Cyber Incidents in Georgia

In the year 2008, Georgia accused Russia of an all-out cyberattack against its websites of nearly all government agencies and the country's leading banks. However, Russia refuted all the allegations but said that individuals in Russia might have been responsible. Later that, western cyber analysts alleged that Russia's security services had likely played a key role in organizing those attacks.

Realizing this extremely vulnerable to the world, the United States Cyber Consequences Unit said the 2008 attacks highlighted the need for international cooperation on cybersecurity.

Mikheil Saakashvili, who known for his fierce pro-Western agenda, lives in Ukraine where he took refuge after Georgian prosecutors sought to bring corruption charges against him. He served two terms as the state's president between 2004 and 2013. Mikheil was deported from Ukraine in 2018, but his citizenship was later restored in May 2019, as reports noted.