The OSCE Mission to BiH finds that the recent cyber-attack on the BiH Parliamentary Assembly illustrates both the vulnerability of key ICT systems in BiH and the urgency to address cybersecurity gaps.  

This attack has endangered the transparency of legislative work and the accessibility of information. With elections fast approaching, increased cyber resilience and the development of internal strategies to strengthen the legislature’s cyber security will be essential for the PA’s upcoming mandate and work on reforms. 

The Mission added that it is high time for competent institutions to operationalize the computer emergency response team (CERT) for BiH institutions, establish a CERT for institutions of FBiH, and develop a cybersecurity framework strategy for BiH.  

“Absent these long-overdue and systemic improvements, government ICT systems will remain highly susceptible to cyber-attacks which may target critical infrastructure and key service providers,” the Mission concluded. 

Thousands of employees in Bosnia and Herzegovina's state institutions were unable to do their job for over two weeks because a cyber attack made them unable to access their computer networks, Croatian state agency Hina said last week.

“The cyber attacks started on September 9, and since then the malware has blocked all data stored in servers in Bosnia and Herzegovina’s parliament,” Hina said.

The first hacking assault was registered on 9 September immediately after the country’s Intelligence and Security Agency (OSA) issued a warning about possible attacks in the future.