Hackers Expose Gaping Holes in North Macedonia’s IT Systems

This is when attackers secretly alter communications between two sides and steal key information, such as passwords, messages or credit card numbers.

The latest security breach came after a Greek hacking group, called "Powerful Greek Army" leaked dozens of email addresses and passwords from staffers in the North Macedonia's Ministry of Economy and Finance, as well as from the municipality of Strumica - and bragged about their exploits on Twitter on May 10.

When and how the hackers got into these systems is still unclear, but both the North Macedonia's Interior Ministry in charge of cyber-crime and the Greek authorities promised a swift joint investigation.

Recently, the Powerful Greek Army hacker group also took down the website of the Institute for Sociological, Political and Juridical Research at the country's main Sts Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje.

Over the past few years, the government has promised to take action following a series of sophisticated and coordinated IT security breaches and hacker attacks on websites containing citizens' data.

But some consider the country's current response to cyber threats far too weak.

Speaking about the latest May 10 attack, the authorities shrugged off the threat, insisting that the hacked email accounts could not be accessed with the leaked passwords or with any other data sets. The data obtained by the hackers was more than seven years old, dating from 2013, they added.

"We have no evidence that the current email systems of those institutions have been hacked lately, and we are investigating all the details related to this case," the government said in an upbeat statement.

It added that official email systems had been updated since 2013, and that protocols with...