Romania hit by cyber attack
A state-sponsored actor sought to influence the election process in Romania, according to Romanian intelligence reports declassified by the president of the country.
Ştefan Stoica, 05.12.2024, 14:00
In an unusual move, president Klaus Iohannis has declassified the reports presented at the latest meeting of the Romanian Supreme Council of National Defence to discuss compliance with electoral advertising rules ahead of the first round of the presidential elections. A press statement issued after the meeting mentioned the existence of cyber attacks aimed at influencing the election process in the first round, whose shock winner was a virtually unknown independent candidate by the name of Călin Georgescu, who had benefited from massive exposure on TikTok.
The documents declassified by the president speak of the scope and gravity of the actions targeting Romania. The assessments of the Romanian Intelligence Service show that an aggressive promotion campaign was conducted in the run-up to the first round of the presidential elections that eluded national election legislation and that a number of social media platforms were used to boost Georgescu’s popularity.
The Romanian intelligence notes that a TikTok campaign that intensified in the last two weeks before the vote managed to ensure this candidate victory in the first round, from being virtually unknown at the beginning of November. The increase in the number of accounts promoting him was not organic, and the activity of these accounts was allegedly coordinated by a state-sponsored actor, which used an alternative communication channel to spread the messages on the platform. Georgescu has thus ended up trending in 9th place globally ahead of the first round of the presidential elections. According to intelligence reports, a Romanian citizen was identified who made donations of over 1 million euros on TikTok to fund Georgescu’s promotion. Cyber attacks also took place on election day and the following night.
The report of the Romanian Intelligence Service writes that Romania is a target for aggressive hybrid actions from Russia, including intelligence leaks and sabotage. An open admirer of Putin’s Russia and of Romania’s interwar anti-Semite and fascist leaders, a tireless critic of NATO and the European Union and opposed to helping Ukraine, Călin Georgescu has baffled the political scene and the business community, not least for his autarchic view of economy reminiscent of the Ceauşescu-era national communism. His ideas were not without response from Romania’s strategic partners.
Matthew Miller, a spokesman for the United States Department of State said the U.S. is concerned about the report by the Romanian Supreme Council for National Defence a bout Russian involvement in malign cyber activity designed to influence the integrity of the Romanian electoral process. “Romania’s hard-earned progress anchoring itself in the Transatlantic community cannot be turned back by foreign actors seeking to shift Romania’s foreign policy away from its Western alliances”, Matthew Miller also said in his statement, before warning: “Any such change would have serious negative impacts on U.S. security cooperation with Romania, while a decision to restrict foreign investment would discourage U.S. companies from continuing to invest in Romania”.
