Hacker wipes Romania's land registry database
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A hacker breached Romania's land registry, wiping databases and halting real estate transactions.
A hacker using the alias ByteToBreach breached Romania's National Agency for Cadastre and Real Estate Advertising (ANCPI) using valid credentials, mapped internal systems, and wiped databases and backups after a failed extortion attempt. The attack, made public July 14, brought Romania's real estate market to a standstill, with official apps offline for a week. Stolen data, including employee credentials and internal documents, was posted for sale. Security firm KELA identified the hacker as Zakaria Mahdjoub from Oran, Algeria. ANCPI is rebuilding its network from scratch, and an offline backup appears to exist, preventing a complete data loss.
What commenters are saying
Commenters note similar attacks on land registries in Slovakia (January 2025) and Poland, with Slovakia's recovery taking months using offline backups and paper records. Some debate the quality of Romania's offline backup and raise concerns about future property disputes from incomplete restoration. A user observes that rebuilding infrastructure from scratch, while painful, could allow a greenfield implementation, though validating all systems for compromise is time-consuming.