RIGA, Aug. 19 (Xinhua) -- Latvian President Edgars Rinkevics has asked the prosecutor general to examine the actions of officials at the Road Traffic Safety Directorate (CSDD) over the protection of data following a major cyberattack that exposed information relating to about 1.2 million people.
Rinkevics said on Wednesday that the cyberattack and subsequent large-scale data leak amounted to a "scandalous" case, stressing that the issue concerned not only the attack itself but also the responsibility of officials.
Transport Minister Rihards Kozlovskis has ordered an expedited internal investigation to establish the circumstances of the attack and determine responsibility. The investigation is also expected to examine CSDD's contract with Latvian technology company Tet for cybersecurity services.
Both CSDD's management board and supervisory council decided on Wednesday to step down.
According to media reports, the attack took place overnight from Aug. 7 to Aug. 8. Information released after the incident showed that the attackers obtained personal data relating to about 1.2 million individuals and data concerning roughly 200,000 legal entities. The information came from records of payments made to CSDD over the past 18 years.
CERT.LV, Cyber incident response institution of Latvia, said preliminary findings indicated that the attack had been targeted and involved advance preparation, while the methods used demonstrated a significant level of technical competence. The agency warned that stolen information could subsequently be used in targeted fraud attempts.
Two months earlier, Latvia, a Baltic country with a population of about 1.85 million, experienced another major cybersecurity incident when a large-scale cyberattack against the IT infrastructure of state-owned forestry company Latvijas valsts mezi (LVM) was detected on June 22.
CSDD is a state-owned company responsible for vehicle registration, driving licences, vehicle technical inspections and other road traffic services in Latvia. Its state capital shares are held by the Transport Ministry.
