Opposition: Neither UGKK nor NBU Can Say When Land-registry Data Is Restored

Bratislava, January 14 (TASR) - Neither the Geodesy, Cartography, and Cadastre Office (UGKK) nor the National Security Bureau (NBU) can currently say when the land-registry data will be restored, opposition representatives stated on Tuesday following an informal discussion with UGKK chairman Juraj Celler and NBU head Roman Konecny. The MPs were originally due to hold a discussion at the parliamentary committee for supervising NBU activities, but it didn't reach a quorum as coalition members were absent. "The good news is that UGKK has multiple backups, it has four backups, only one of which was attacked and compromised, so simply by comparing these databases it can be guaranteed that functional data will be restored," said MP Jan Horecky (Christian Democrats/KDH), adding that the hackers also demanded a ransom of €12 million for unlocking the data, which the state didn't pay. MP Jan Hargas (Progressive Slovakia/PS) added that there is currently no guarantee that citizens' non-public data haven't been misused. He also stated that the latest backups are as of Friday, January 3 and therefore may not be complete, as the attack took place on January 5. Head of the House committee for supervising the NBU activities Roman Mikulec ('Slovakia', 'For the People', KU) pointed out that the state can't yet say who is behind the cyber-attack. "We can't yet say who carried out the attack, we can't yet say in what way the attack took place exactly or through what location," he said. Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) continues to demand the ouster of UGKK chairman Celler. "The attack happened on the fifth [of January], in the morning, and on the seventh [of January] he came to work. You know, if my office disappeared, I'd be able to come from Sydney in 48 hours," said MP Alojz Hlina (SaS). Celler, who attended the meeting, said he didn't see any reasons for his resignation. "I did what I had to do," he told reporters after the meeting with the MPs. The offices of the land-registry departments have been temporarily closed in recent days due to a large-scale cyber-attack from abroad. It affected the UGKK information system, which is used by the land-registry departments of district offices. am/mcs