Interior Minister Ivan Demerdzhiev has received a threat that he will be “hurt“. His name was mentioned in the last message from the wave of emails with threats about explosive devices sent to hundreds of Bulgarian institutions.
This was announced by Senior Commissioner Vladimir Dimitrov, Director of the “Cybercrime“ Directorate at the Directorate of the Bulgarian Anti-Terrorism Service. “In the last message, which was sent to hundreds of Bulgarian institutions, the name of the Minister of Interior was mentioned. So he also received a threat, in the same context – that he will be hurt“, said Dimitrov.
According to him, it cannot be categorically said whether one person or several guarantors are behind the emails. The Directorate of Anti-Terrorism Investigation is working on different versions, and so far there is no confirmed data on a specific motive.
The threats were sent in separate waves – once or twice a week. Among the recipients are schools, kindergartens, airports and other institutions. The messages were sent from compromised emails and servers from different parts of the world, and the Tor network, VPN services and proxy servers were also used.
“This is an indicator that the attack is aimed at the Minister of the Interior, but also at the state as a whole, as well as at the institutions“, said the director of “Cybercrime“. He identified the possible goal as destabilizing institutions, creating chaos, and undermining citizens' trust.
Demerdzhiev has already stated that there is a connection between the increase in bomb threats and his hearings in parliament. According to him, the number of signals increased after a meeting at which he presented data on flights related to the head of a parliamentary group. This connection remains a version, not an established fact.
The case is being worked on with international partners and companies whose infrastructure was used to send the messages. At the moment, there is no public announcement about an identified perpetrator or charges being filed.
Sources: novini.bg, lupa.bg, btvnovinite.bg