The AEP head will impose the necessary sanctions on individuals responsible for the most recent cyber security incident
Toni Grebla, the head of the Permanent Electoral Authority (AEP), announced that he will take the proper action against the employees responsible for the Thursday morning cyber security incident, which involved the lists of electoral experts in a particular county, along with their personal identification numbers, being publicly accessible for approximately sixty minutes. Grebla stated that the incident was caused by one employee’s irresponsibility and three other employees’ lack of attention.
Grebla said during a phone interview with broadcaster Digi 24 that the AEP staff became fatigued and that, for one of the approximately 46 constituencies, the lists of the electoral experts with the corresponding electoral offices were sent via the Authority’s public mail rather than the secure email used by a single authorized person from an AEP County Directorate. The AEP staff had to check the lists of the EP candidates the previous night, the last of which was submitted after 23:00.
Grebla reported that about thirty persons accessed the email before the issue was discovered and resolved an hour later. „What is regrettable is that the table with the 1,300 electoral experts for the respective county also had their personal ID numbers listed, this was the only type of personal information that accidentally went public, because the nominal list is also displayed at the Central Electoral Bureau,” he stated.
The head of AEP emphasized that this is not a cyberattack or a security lapse, but rather „the regrettable, unforgivable carelessness” of an employee brought on by exhaustion from the demanding job of the prior few days.
„I immediately informed the Personal Data Protection Authority, as the law requires, I opened an investigation, and on Monday I will order the appropriate measures against the people whose neglectful action caused the leak of this email,” stated Grebla.
