Tirana Times
TIRANA, July 21 – The official website of the Albanian Institute for International Studies (AIIS) was attacked Tuesday from Serb hackers. During the last week the Institute’s virtual system, including the electronic communication, was paralyzed.
A spokesman of the Institute said that was totally not understandable and inexplicable, adding that the Institute’s ten-year archive has disappeared. The attack was inexplicable as the Institute has its activity public and all its materials are public.
The motives behind such an attack are unclear and it is not understood why the Serb hackers targeted the AIIS. The Serb and Albanian hackers have often attacked each other but it has never occurred the attack is directed to a research center. Serb hackers managed to penetrate in the official sites of the government or other institutions and that adds to the inexplicable motive of the attack on the research Institute.
Together with the AIIS official site the attack also affected another site linked to that, as the Institute serves as a center of information and research for Albania’s relations with the European Union.
The destruction of such a virtual center, according to the IT experts, is very likely not a goal in itself but it may be linked with the fact that the AEURIC domain is linked to the AIIS main domain.
The AIIS spokesman said that the Institute will take the case to the proper institutions. Meanwhile, specialized IT experts are working to turn back the AIIS site to normal and also the other sites, pages linked to that.
That was a considerable and surprising damage on the Institute and the AEURIC, the research center on information for Albania-EU ties, according to the spokesman, also taking into consideration that both sites are hosted from a US company.
The Albanian Institute for International Studies is a research center with a reputation inside and outside the country noted for its public studies and activities on foreign policy and international relations.
