Romanian presidential election: Russian hackers attack government websites

A group of Russian hackers attacked several Romanian government and presidential candidate websites on Sunday 4 May as the country voted for its next president in the first round. The attack was carried out by a group known as DDOSIA/NoName057.

As reported by Romanian news agency G4media, the attack hit the website of the Romanian Constitutional Court, the main government portal, the website of the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the websites of presidential candidates.

The National Cybersecurity Directorate said that the sites of the candidates under attack included those of Crin Antonescu, a candidate from the ruling coalition, and Bucharest Mayor Nicușor Dan, an independent candidate.

The hackers claimed responsibility for the cyberattack on their Telegram channel, indicating that the websites of the ministries of interior and justice were among their targets.

Romania's National Cybersecurity Directorate said that the websites listed by the hacker group were already up and running at 14:00 local time.

On 4 May, Romania held the first round of the presidential election, which resulted in the victory of pro-Russian far-right leader George Simion with 40.94% of the vote and liberal Bucharest mayor Nicușor Dan receiving 20.99%.

Dan expressed optimism about his future victory, although he acknowledged that the second round of elections would be difficult.

Antonescu conceded his defeat in the election but avoided answering which candidate he would support in the second round.