Government of Albania recovers from cyberattack in three days, builds resilience with Microsoft Security solutions

When the Government of Albania faced a sophisticated nation-state attack, the Albanian National Agency for Information Society (AKSHI) responded quickly and decisively. In the face of a double-pronged assault - a decoy ransomware attack coupled with a "wiper" attack designed to destroy systems and data - AKSHI took swift action by isolating its infrastructure and shutting down critical systems to prevent damage.

Working closely with Microsoft Incident Response (Microsoft IR) and Security Modernization and Transformation (M&T), AKSHI deployed cutting-edge security technology, including Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, Defender for Identity, and Microsoft Sentinel, to gain comprehensive visibility across its infrastructure and prepare for future attacks. AKSHI's successful defense against the cyber-attack and their subsequent security modernization efforts, enabled the Government of Albania to rise stronger and have its most resilient infrastructure to date.

“We worked with Microsoft to recover from a sophisticated, targeted cyberattack in only three days. Our crisis became an opportunity to make our digital infrastructure stronger.”

Linda Karcanaj, Director General, Albanian National Agency for Information Society (AKSHI)