BREAKING: Hungarian foreign ministry was aware of Russian cyber attacks, insider documents prove

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A friendship based on trust? Internal documents prove that the Hungarian foreign ministry was aware of Russian cyber attacks after it emerged two years ago that Vladimir Putin’s hackers had attacked the Hungarian foreign ministry’s IT network.

Orbán Putin visit
A friendship based on trust? The foreign ministry was aware of the Russian cyber attacks in 2022. Photo: www.facebook.com/OrbánViktor

444.hu has presented new documents proving that Russia’s military and civilian intelligence services have carried out a large-scale cyber attack against the Hungarian foreign ministry’s systems. Two years ago, the foreign ministry and several pro-government politicians simply denied that this had happened, describing the information as “campaign lies” (the parliamentary elections took place two years ago in Hungary, in 2022).

The Russians stole invaluable national security data from foreign ministry computers

In March 2022, Direkt36 revealed that Russian secret services had carried out a large-scale cyber attack against the IT network of the Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade. At the time, the Foreign Ministry responded by saying,

“We do not address campaign lies”.

Direkt36 journalist Szabolcs Panyi reconstructed the Russian intelligence operation against Hungarian diplomacy with the help of background conversations. He described how Putin’s hackers broke into the foreign ministry’s computer network and internal correspondence and gained access to everything there. The ministry and several Fidesz politicians clearly denied the news portal’s reports.

However, according to internal documents seen by 444.hu, it is clear not only that these attacks took place, but also that the foreign ministry knew about them. A letter from the head of one of Hungary’s secret services clearly describes the scale of the Russian cyber attacks and makes clear who the perpetrators are. (Check out the documents in 444.hu’s article HERE.)

The then Director General of the Hungarian National Security Service (Nemzetbiztonsági Szakszolgálat, NBSZ), Lieutenant General Hedvig Szabó, gave a report on the state of the foreign ministry’s IT network at the end of September 2021. In the letter, she described that

“due to the total exposure, more than 4000 workstations and more than 930 servers have become unreliable”.

Russian cyber attacks: The intruders are known

This reveals that the hackers could have seen emails, files, personal data of foreign ministry staff and a host of other sensitive information. It also clearly describes who the hackers were who attacked the Hungarian diplomatic IT system:

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7 Comments

  1. Soon Hungary will not only compromise the security if its citizens but also from all the EU, unfortunately the eu can not get rid of Hungary or orban. This has to end in some way but the sooner the better as fidesz is a Russian trojan horse.

  2. And still, Mr. Putin and his cronies are our Politicians BFFs. Dependency, some shared interest or fear of something?

    Very worrisome situation for all of our allies – be it in the EU or NATO. Am sure China won´t mind, though!

  3. If Hungary was aware that their site was hacked that the ministry would put anything important on the site. This is tantamount to the use of double agents by Britain during WWII and the cold war.

  4. Nice try, but such ‘breaking news’ from a government-hating media source may not be the most reliable.
    Expect more such attacks from the supposedly non-existing opposition media before the EU election in June.😎

  5. This has been known for some time. No one in NATO or the EU has trusted Hungary for years. The Orban government has actively allowed the Russians open access to classified information by looking the other way and keeping silent while they conduct their hacking. The bottom line is that Hungary is a NATO in name but definitely not in deed. ORBAN = PUTIN.

  6. This gives more credibility to the idea or strategy that Russia and one presumes some Anglo interests, wish to use Hungary as Trojan horse with hacking to access EU and NATO communications.

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