The Nationalist Party is reaching out to its members who have had their personal information leaked on the dark web after the party’s computer system was hacked in April.
According to a PN spokesperson no information of more than 21,000 people has been used by the hackers, with no party member reporting any incidents.
After a ransomware attack, files, including names, addresses, ID cards, and in some cases, phone numbers were published on a hacker’s forum last month.
The file was labelled ‘Tesseri 2015’, suggesting the people whose data was leaked are either current or former tesserati (paid-up members).
The Nationalist Party started to contact members gradually after it was informed that these documents were leaked.
In April, hackers originally gave the PN 240 hours to “communicate and cooperate” with them.
Prior to that, the hackers had already published a selection of documents, including employee details, passport photos and a studio rota on the dark web.
The PN told Times of Malta that hackers were only able to access data relating to 2014 or earlier, which was most probably obtained after the user clicked a link on a malicious e-mail.
Hackers uploaded three files, claiming to have dumped 1.3 GiB (gibibytes) of information, but not all of it appears to be accessible.
“The party continues to invest in new and more robust equipment and firewalls together with more secure group policies,” the spokesperson said.
He said that investing in new equipment also meant safeguarding the party’s members.
“The party reiterates its appeal that any person and/ or entity that has obtained access to information about our members should not indulge in any act of complicity with the criminal actions of the hackers to whom the PN did not budge and stuck to its firm stand of not entering into any communication with them.”
PN leader Bernard Grech has said that the party will not negotiate with cybercriminals. The leaked file also includes eight files full of excel sheets, including personal records of 21,049 party members and also past and present employees of the PN’s media arm, Media Link Communications.
Times of Malta sent questions to Cyber Crime Unit regarding the PN’s cyber-attack.