Skopje, 22 February 2023 (MIA) – Director of the Health Insurance Fund (HIF), Magdalena Filipovska Grashkoska, guarantees that no personal data of the users has been leaked during the hacker attack against the institution, noting that data has been secure the whole time. 

"Personal and health data is secure. Citizens can freely exercise all their rghts. The HIF systems are almost back to normal. Data is secure and has been secure. The attack only targeted systems which include virtual systems, but not data. Citizen data is stored in a masked form and is not readable by the naked eye without connecting to the application server, which in our case has not been affected in the current attack. These are the HIF virtual servers located within the internal data center," Filipovska Grashkoska told a press briefing on Wednesday. 

She stressed that the HIF has done everything that can be done to protect the institution against possible new attacks.

"Soon after the system is stabilized we're perform a migration to a cloud system that will provide primary and secondary site - disaster recovery communication. In addition, an urgent procedure is underway in terms of offline backup. According to the information I have from the IT experts, the necessary anti-virus protective files and appropriate backup software have been installed, so everything has been undertaken, and of course the migration to the cloud will be carried out as soon as possible, which will also be an additional protection," Filipovska Grashkoska said, adding that the HIF system already had all such protection - antivirus and firewall protection.

Asked who is responsible and whether she feels personal responsibility, as well as how much money the hackers had demanded to unblock the system, the HIF director said that an investigation has been launched and the investigation will show who is responsible for the hacker attack against the institution. 

"An investigation has been opened. That is a subject of investigation. A preliminary analysis has been done, and it is also included in the investigation. All these questions will be answered after the investigation is completed. As far as I'm concerned personally, I can say that from the moment I joined this institution, I have made every effort to provide the best possible service to the citizens. In these two weeks as well, my colleagues and I have put our best efforts to resolve the issue. And I think the fact that it was resolved so quickly shows that we are doing our job right," said Filipovska Grashkoska. 

As regards possible responsibility of her colleague Faton Ahmeti, who is on vacation leave, she said the question should be asked to him personally.

"You would need to ask that question to him. My colleague Faton is on an annual leave by a decision before the incident. He has been notified of everything. I think it would be unprofessional and incorrect on my part to comment on his behalf. He has been informed about the whole situation, he was also informed about today's briefing," said Filipovska Grashkoska.

According to her, a technical issue was noticed in the HIF on February 6, due to which all systems were turned off and a team called for initial diagnostics. The incident has been immediately reported to the Ministry of Interior, and it has forwarded the case to the Public Prosecutor's Office, which has started an investigation.

Photo: MIA