Cyber Incident Victim: Embassy of Armenia in Greece
Date:
Jan 2016
Location:
Armenia
Summary
Azerbaijani hackers defaced the Embassy of Armenia in Greece along with NATO-Armenia and Armenian embassy sites in about forty countries, replacing the pages with a message and video showcasing Azerbaijan’s military strength. The attack also hit the Permanent Missions of Armenia to NATO, the OSCE and the United Nations, leaving them with similar deface content. This action was presented as a response to earlier intrusions by Armenian hackers, including a prior breach of the Armenian presidential website, and reflects the ongoing hostility between the two states rooted in the Nagorno‑Karabakh conflict.
| CIA Posture | Motives | Tactics, Techniques & Procedures |
|---|---|---|
| Available to members | 3 motives | 1 technique |
| Threat Actors | Type | Location |
|---|---|---|
| 2 actors | Available to members | Available to members |
Description
On or around January 21 2016, a group identifying itself as the Anti‑Armenia Team from Azerbaijan carried out a coordinated defacement campaign against Armenian diplomatic online assets. The attackers compromised the official websites of the Permanent Mission of Armenia to NATO, the Permanent Mission to the Organization for Security and Co‑operation in Europe (OSCE), and the Permanent Mission to the United Nations. In addition to those missions, the defacement extended to Armenian embassy websites in approximately forty other countries, including the Embassy of Armenia in Greece. The compromised sites were replaced with a defacement page that displayed a video and text featuring Azerbaijan’s president addressing the nation. The page also included messages highlighting Azerbaijan’s military capabilities. The hackers told HackRead that the operation was a reply to earlier Armenian cyber actions.
At the time of the HackRead report the defacement page was observable on the affected domains, and the attackers provided links to the compromised sites together with their zone‑h mirrors as proof of the intrusion. The incident echoed a previous attack on July 26 2014, when the same Anti‑Armenia Team had destroyed the official website of the Armenian president and several government ministries. Armenian experts cited by the hackers acknowledged that anti‑Armenia cyber groups create problems for Armenia at the national level and claimed Armenia lacks sufficient intellectual resources to counter them. The defacement campaign took place amid the ongoing Nagorno‑Karabakh conflict, a period during which Armenia and Azerbaijan have no diplomatic relations and remain technically at war. No further details regarding victim response, mitigation, or legal actions are provided in the available articles.