Romania’s real estate market still reeling from major cyberattack against Land Registration Agency

Romania’s National Agency for Cadastre and Land Registration (ANCPI) was targeted by a cyberattack that took the e-Terra system offline and blocked real estate transactions nationwide starting on July 14. Many such transactions would have taken place, since VAT for new homes increases from 9% to 21% from August 1 onwards. However, the institution said on Monday, July 20, that its databases were not affected.

Last week, ANCPI said that the problems with its systems were only technical in nature, but then publicly acknowledged that it had been targeted by a hacker who succeeded in obtaining its data. The perpetrator had ample openings, as ANCPI had not invested in security. According to Ziarul Financiar, the institution spent RON 710 million (EUR 135 million) on digitalization in the last 20 years, but only 0.2% of that, some RON 1.6 million (EUR 305,000), was allocated to cybersecurity.