BUCHAREST, March 31 (Reuters) - Romanian state institutions are facing more than 10,000 cyberattacks daily, Defence Minister Radu Miruta said on Tuesday.
While Miruta offered no more details on specific targets, any disruption or suspected perpetrators, it is the most public insight Romanian authorities have given about the scale of the threat the EU and NATO member state continues to face.
In December 2024 Romania's top court annulled a presidential election on suspicion of Russian interference in favour of a far-right frontrunner, denied by Moscow.
Declassified documents from secret services said they had identified over 85,000 cyberattacks around the election which aimed to exploit system vulnerabilities.
"We are observing each day more than 10,000 attacks against our institutions," Miruta told a conference held by the Economist that is covering subjects including defence, government policies and energy.
"The discussion is not only around cyberattacks, the discussion should also be around the way the digital transformation is used in order to introduce fake news, influence perceptions about very important national aspects."
He did not elaborate.
Last year, the prosecutor general told reporters criminal investigations had revealed a pattern of hybrid attacks against Romania over the last year, seeking to influence voters and weaken state institutions.
The campaign included cyberattacks, public events and online disinformation and ransomware cyberattacks associated with pro-Russian groups.
Romania shares a 650 km (400 mile) land border with Ukraine and has had Russian drone fragments repeatedly fall on its territory during the war. In the Black Sea, the defence ministry has said it was faced with nearly daily attempts to jam GPS signals.
The country's national defence strategy released late last year said cyberattacks, corruption and weak institutional capacity were some of the main risks to the country's national security.
NATO and Western intelligence services have warned that Russia is behind a growing number of hostile activities across the Euro-Atlantic area, ranging from repeated cyberattacks to Moscow-linked arson - all of which Russia denies.
(Reporting by Luiza Ilie; Editing by Alison Williams)
