Press Release

On 19.07.2022, the Prosecutor's Office of the Judicial District of Tirana registered criminal proceedings No. 5430 for the commission of criminal offenses "Illegal interception of computer data", "Interference into computer data", "Interference into computer systems", "Misuse of devices/equipment", provided by Articles 293/a, 293/b, 293/c, 293/ç, of the Criminal Code.

The object of the investigation is the cyber-attack against the state institution of AKSHI (National Information Society Agency), which summarizes all the official government websites in the Republic of Albania.
Likewise, on 09.09.2022, another cyber-attack was carried out on the equipment and systems that are administered and managed by the Ministry of Interior in Albania.
These two actions, since they were carried out with the same typology and the cyber-attack came from the same source, are being investigated in a single case. In the systems where the attack took place, a profile was identified in two different social networks based outside the territory of the Republic of Albania that belonged to the authors/collaborators of this attack.

Immediately on 19.07.2022, with the decision of the Prosecutor's Office at the Court of First Instance of Tirana, the sequestration of these accounts in two different social networks was ordered, and as a result of this decision, the relevant companies reacted by removing access to these accounts.
As a result, of the lack of access, the authors of the cyber-attack opened another page/site that was used to distribute various messages related to the attack carried out or the publication of the data that was stolen. In the following days and currently, from this page as well as from accounts of online communication applications such as Telegram, etc., documents of the State Police constituting an investigative secret are being posted.
The posting of data, which are suspected to have been hacked and copied from the cyber-attack that occurred against the computer systems of AKSHI as well as the computer systems of the Ministry of the Interior, is carried out by the online site named "HomelandJustice" with link https://homelandjustice.cx/ as well as by the profile on the "Telegram" social network named "JusticeHomeland1" with link https://t.me/JusticeHomeland1.”
From the investigative actions, it has turned out that these sites have IPs in Hong Kong, Great Britain and Russia. 

As above, the Prosecutor’s Office attached at the Tirana First Instance Court, on 04.10.2022, based on Article 208 of the Code  of Criminal Procedure, the Council of Europe Convention "On mutual legal assistance in criminal matters" (in the case of Great Britain), Articles 509 et seq. of the Code of Criminal Procedure "On letter rogatory to abroad" and Law No.10193 dated December 03, 2009 "On jurisdictional relations with foreign authorities in the criminal field", in the Convention on Crime in the Field of Cybernetics, ratified by law no. 8888 dated 25.04.2002 and in the principle of reciprocity (in the case of the Russian Federation) requested the Court of First Instance of Tirana for:

1.    Seizure of data and computer systems, as well as the prohibition to carry out further actions of publishing the hacked documentation from the computer systems of AKSHI as well as the computer systems of the Ministry of Interior of the Republic of Albania from the following websites:
The profile on the "Telegram" social network named "JusticeHomeland1" and link https://t.me/JusticeHomeland1.” with address:
Telegram Headquarters ……London United Kingdom;
"HomelandJustice" and link https://homelandjustice.cx/ with ISP...... Hong Kong;
The profile on the "Telegram" social network named "JusticeHomeland1" and link https://t.me/JusticeHomeland1.” Russia".
2.    Sending all seized data by letter rogatory to Albanian law enforcement authorities.
3.    The implementation of the decision to be done by sending a request for legal assistance from the law enforcement bodies of the respective states of the Great Britain, the People's Republic of China and the Russian Federation.

The Tirana First Instance Court, with Decision no. 1864, 1865 and 1866 of the Basic Register dated 06th October 2022 decided to accept the request of the Prosecution.
In the implementation and execution of these decisions, the Prosecutor's Office at the Court of First Instance in Tirana sent requests for Legal Assistance from the law enforcement bodies of the relevant states of the Great Britain, the People's Republic of China and the Russian Federation.

As mentioned in the Decisions of the Court of First Instance, Tirana no.1864, 1865 and 1866, dated 06.10.2022, the sites from which the hacked materials originate being subject to the criminal investigation, have data and computer systems already seized in accordance with the procedural law of the Republic of Albania. Any data that originates from these sites operating in a criminal manner is subject to investigation and seizure already with court decisions.

The investigations related to these cases are complex and are ongoing, guaranteeing that the Prosecution Office is maximally engaged and will carry out any investigative action in order to fully clarify this criminal activity and further prevent this criminal activity that aims to harm all the activity of state bodies of the Republic of Albania, the social peace and the coexistence between individuals.