The Security and Intelligence Agency (SOA) director Daniel Markic has said in an interview with the Večernji List daily that Russia has stepped up cyber attacks against Croatia, and the targets have mainly been ministries and the tax administration so as to steal sensitive information.

Not only state institutions but also big companies have been targeted by cybercrime groups and state-sponsored groups, Markic was quoted by the Vecernji List newspaper as saying on Saturday.

He recalls that over the recent years, NATO and the European Union have started naming who is behind such cyber attacks.

Considering the current situation and the war in Ukraine, there is no longer any reason for us to keep quiet about such developments. Russian-aligned cybercrime groups conduct some of those attacks, said Markic.

The cyber attacks of this kind have intensified since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Also, the COVID-19 pandemic has contributed to moving our professional and social life to the cyber world, he explained, adding that therefore certain states and criminal groups have shown a greater interest in those developments.

Markic said that he could not rule out the spillover of the military aggression from Ukraine to other countries.

“In the meantime, it is our duty to be on alert with all the developments in our neighbourhood.”

“Russia’s influence in the region, particularly in Serbia, is well known, and we are supposed to be on alert,” said Markic.

We can see that Russia’s operation in Ukraine is not going as planned by Moscow, we cannot rule out possibilities of Russia exploiting other ways, including cyber attacks in the world, for its plans, he said.