Romania's real-estate market has ground to a halt following a reported cyberattack that has compromised the nation's land registry database. The hacker, known as ByteToBreach, is accused of exfiltrating data from the cadastre before wiping information from its servers after an unsuccessful extortion attempt. This incident has prevented notaries from issuing land registry extracts and authenticating property sales or mortgages, effectively freezing new real-estate transactions.
Sources indicate that ByteToBreach is also responsible for a breach of the Swedish government's e-portal earlier this year. The stolen Romanian data was reportedly advertised for sale on multiple online forums. The National Agency for Cadastre and Real Estate Advertising (ANCPI) has stated that its IT infrastructure is undergoing a significant reinstallation and consolidation process.
Contrary to initial reports of complete data erasure, the ANCPI asserted that the institution's technical and legal databases were not affected and that backup copies were available for data restoration. However, the disruption has caused significant anxiety for citizens and industry professionals, particularly with a planned increase in the VAT on new homes from 9% to 21% set to take effect in the coming weeks.
In communication with Euronews Romania, the alleged hacker expressed apologies for the disruption caused to citizens and the IT team working to resolve the issue. When asked about compromised data, ByteToBreach reportedly stated that the data would not be sold indiscriminately, a response that offers little reassurance regarding potential future misuse.