Ministry of Nature Protection and Natural Resources of the Republic of Artsakh

Profile narrative

The Ministry of Nature Protection and Natural Resources of the Republic of Artsakh is a government ministry tasked with overseeing environmental protection and the management of natural resources within the territory of Artsakh. Its headquarters are located in Armenia, reflecting the administrative arrangement of the republic. As a ministerial body, it operates under the authority of the Artsakh government and is responsible for developing and implementing policies related to conservation, sustainable use of natural resources, and environmental regulation. The organisation’s mandate encompasses the protection of ecosystems, oversight of resource extraction activities, and coordination with other state agencies on environmental matters. Being a governmental entity, it is not a subsidiary of any private or external organisation but forms part of the public administration structure of the Republic of Artsakh.

In January 2019, the ministry’s website was compromised as part of a watering hole campaign attributed to the Turla advanced persistent threat group, which targeted multiple Armenian entities including diplomatic and financial organisations. Attackers injected malicious JavaScript into the site that presented a fake Adobe Flash update to visitors, thereby delivering two previously undocumented malware payloads: NetFlash, a .NET downloader, and PyFlash, a Python‑based backdoor. These payloads were designed to execute commands, collect system information, and establish persistence on infected machines for espionage purposes. The operation relied heavily on social engineering techniques, using browser fingerprinting and persistent tracking cookies to profile visitors selectively before deploying the malicious code. The incident was documented in a security analysis that highlighted the attackers’ focus on Armenian governmental and sector‑specific targets. The source for this information is a WeliveSecurity article detailing the Turla campaign against Armenian watering holes.

Incidents

1 incident linked to this organisation.