Cyber Incident Victim: Embassy of Armenia in Greece
Date:
Jan 2016
Location:
Armenia
Summary
Azerbaijani hackers defaced the Embassy of Armenia's websites representing its permanent missions to NATO, the OSCE and the United Nations in about forty countries, replacing the pages with a deface screen that displayed Azerbaijan’s military messages and video. The action was presented as a retaliatory move in the ongoing cyber exchange between Azerbaijani and Armenian hacker groups, set against the backdrop of the Nagorno‑Karabakh conflict.
| CIA Posture | Motives | Tactics, Techniques & Procedures |
|---|---|---|
| Available to members | 3 motives | 2 techniques |
| Threat Actors | Type | Location |
|---|---|---|
| 2 actors | Available to members | Available to members |
Description
The cyber conflict between Azerbaijani hackers known as the Anti‑Armenia Team and Armenian hackers called the Monte Melkonian Cyber Army has been escalating over time. In the month preceding the January 2016 incident, the Monte Melkonian Cyber Army reportedly leaked sensitive data from Azerbaijan Ministry servers. The Anti‑Armenia Team had previously claimed responsibility for defacing the Armenian presidential website and several ministerial sites on 26 July 2014. Armenian experts have acknowledged that the Azerbaijani group creates problems for Armenia at the national level.
On or around 21 January 2016, the Anti‑Armenia Team carried out a coordinated defacement campaign against Armenian diplomatic online presences. The attackers compromised the official website of Armenia’s Permanent Mission to NATO, the Permanent Mission to the Organization for Security and Co‑operation in Europe (OSCE), and the Permanent Mission to the United Nations. According to the source, the defacement affected websites in approximately 40 countries. Each compromised site displayed a deface page that included text and video messages highlighting Azerbaijan’s military capabilities. The hackers provided links to the defaced pages and corresponding zone‑h mirrors as evidence of the intrusion.
The incident occurred amid the continued absence of diplomatic relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan, a situation rooted in the unresolved Nagorno‑Karabakh conflict. No official statements from the affected missions or from Armenian governmental bodies regarding mitigation or restoration are included in the provided source material. The article concludes by noting that the defacement was presented as a retaliatory measure for earlier Armenian cyber operations against Azerbaijani targets.