The embassy received
numerous complaints from citizens, who claimed that it was only possible to
book an appointment several months ahead.
VIENNA, February 22.
/TASS/. The Russian Embassy in Austria has pinpointed a cyber attack on its
information networks from foreign sources, the diplomatic mission in Vienna
informed TASS on Friday.
The diplomats
explained that since the beginning of 2019, they noticed systematic no-shows
for those who signed up through the online appointment-scheduling system at the
embassy. However, the number of online bookings increased several times. The
diplomatic mission received numerous complaints from the public, who claimed
that it was only possible to book an appointment several months ahead.
"Pressure on the
consular department is always high, but no-show numbers are usually small.
Nevertheless, since the beginning of 2019, not one person who signed up has
shown up for an appointment," the embassy noted.
At the request of the
diplomats, special IT services looked into the problem and uncovered over 300
requests made automatically with IP addresses from Iraq, Thailand, Indonesia
and several other countries. "We decided to delete these requests and to
block their sources. Currently, the no-show numbers are back to normal,"
the embassy informed.
"Obviously, we
are in fact talking about malicious activity aimed at sabotaging the work of
the embassy’s consular department," Russian Ambassador to Austria Dmitry
Lyubinsky noted. "We cannot rule out more attacks, we will monitor the situation
closely in the interest of our visitors," he concluded.
Source: ITAR-TASS
22-02-2019
