Hacker Wipes Romania Entire Land Registry Database After Failed Extortion Freezing Property Market

A hacker breached ANCPI, Romania's National Agency for Cadastre and Land Registration, on July 14 and posted stolen employee credentials, internal documents and network details to a hacking forum the following day, then wiped the land registry database after an extortion attempt failed 12. The attack, using the alias ByteToBreach and later attributed by security firm KELA to an Algeria-based individual, entered through valid credentials and exploited vulnerabilities the National Cyber Security Directorate had recently flagged to the agency 23. All ANCPI systems, including the e-Terra platform and agency email, remained offline as of July 20, halting property registrations and notary transactions nationwide as buyers raced to close deals before an August 1 VAT increase from 9 to 21 percent 14. ANCPI said core records were not altered or destroyed and that offline backups existed at multiple sites, and it began migrating systems to the Government Cloud with completion targeted for July 22, though it has not given a restoration timeline 24. The agency had spent roughly 305,000 euros of its 135 million euro digitalization budget on cybersecurity over two decades, according to Balkan Insight and Cybernews 12.