Bomb threats: interior minister points to hijacked email accounts abroad
Hundreds of threatening emails to courts, schools and airports since June: according to Interior Minister Demerdzhiev, they come from hacked accounts in five countries. No arrests so far.
Graphic: TERRA WORLD NEWS (own graphic based on the sources listed)
The wave of bomb threats against Bulgarian institutions stems from hijacked email accounts abroad, Interior Minister Ivan Demerdzhiev said. At a hearing in parliament he named email and hosting providers in Italy, the UK, Lebanon, Brazil and Argentina, as well as a free anonymising Swiss email service. Since June, hundreds of threatening messages have been received by courts, universities, schools, kindergartens, airports and ports. On Friday, several institutions again received threats.
The texts are almost identical, automated and machine-translated into Bulgarian, the minister said. The perpetrators have not been identified and are presumed not to be Bulgarian citizens. Access to some of the hijacked mailboxes had been offered for sale on hacker forums, and anonymising tools hide the real sender. There is currently no effective way to block the messages.
Demerdzhiev said the threats spike at certain times – after his hearing on 2 July and again this week and last. Pre-trial proceedings for false alarms have been opened. According to partner services, dozens of institutions in the Balkans and elsewhere in Europe were threatened during the same period.