February 16, 2020
There have been at least 79 technical attacks on websites in Serbia over the last five years, the majority of which targetted online media platforms, according to an announcement of cyber security organisation SHARE Foundation in its report “Error 404 – Digital Rights in Serbia, 2014-2019”.
As a result of this fact, reports portal Cenzolovka, it is not unfounded to conclude that hacker attacks have become a widely used tool among those who don’t want certain content to reach the public.
Such attacks have only led to five convictions for the criminal offence of unauthorised intrusion into a computer system during the past five years, thus ensuring it is easy to calculate how safe this type of censorship is for perpetrators and those ordering such attacks.
The most recent major technical attack was reported by the website of TV N1, which is known for its critical reporting of the authorities. In just three days, the site was subjected to four major DDoS attacks with the simple goal of preventing the public from accessing the portal of N1 Television. The site was unavailable for a total of more than 10 hours.
According to an N1 announcement, this related to a paid DDoS attack from China, which is why they filed a criminal complaint with the Office of the Prosecutor for High-Tech Crime.
