Azernews.Az

By Ayya Lmahamad

The Center for Computer Emergency Response Team of Azerbaijan has appealed to international cybercrime combat organizations over attacks by three Armenian cyber groups, Trend has reported.

The chief information security officer at the State Service for Special Communications and Information Security, Tural Mammadov, made the remarks at an online conference on “Cyber fraud in Azerbaijan during the pandemic”.

He recalled that back in summer 2020, Azerbaijani users received emails from a suspicious email address on behalf of certain Fuad Musayev.

Musayev stressed that the results of the investigation showed that this cyber attack was organized by the Armenian Security LLC company.

“Thus, we found out that the attacks were carried out by the employees of this company, Armen Gnuni, Iranian Armenian Ara Babahani and Ashot Mnatsakanyan,” he said.

“Having collected a sufficient database, we appealed to international structures to access this crime,” he added.

Earlier, talking about the external cyberattacks during the 44-day war, Tural Mammadov stated that the attacks mainly targeted Azerbaijan's Central Bank. He added that there were also cyber attacks on Azerbaijan's banking structures.

Mammadov stressed that all these cyberattacks were successfully eliminated, noting that there were no failures in the Bank's systems.

"In addition, there were DDoS attacks. We blocked them. Moreover, we activated a system that prevents this type of cyberattacks," he said.

He also noted phishing attacks by Armenian hackers.

"For example, emails were sent on behalf of the management of banks and the Association of Banks of Azerbaijan. Our service monitored all these frauds, and information about them was transmitted to special departments. There was also fake information spread about allegedly hacking and obtaining data from Azerbaijani banks and government agencies, which we refuted," he said.

Cybersecurity has become the most pressing problem in the world, including in Azerbaijan.

The country has set as a priority task to train domestic experts in this area and improve their professional skills.

The working environment created at the Digital Development and Transport Ministry's Information and Computing Center plays an important role in training relevant cybersecurity experts.

“The mentorship and work environment created in the cyberattack simulation lab will play an important role in the training of cybersecurity professionals. In addition, during the internship program, participants can share knowledge with each other,” the ministry earlier stated.

--

Ayya Lmahamad is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @AyyaLmahamad

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz