Hacker Wipes Romania's Entire Land Registry Database, Real Estate Market Frozen

A hacker using valid credentials breached Romania's National Agency for Cadastre and Land Registration, wiped the country's entire land registry database after a failed extortion attempt, and posted stolen employee data for sale online. The real estate market has been paralyzed for over a week.

A hacker has breached Romania's National Agency for Cadastre and Real Estate Advertising (ANCPI) and wiped the country's entire land registry database, bringing the real estate market to a standstill following a failed extortion attempt.

The attacker, tracked as ByteToBreach, gained access using valid credentials, mapped internal systems, and deleted both primary databases and backups after ANCPI refused to pay. The incident became public on July 14, and by the next day stolen data — including employee credentials, internal documents, and IT network diagrams — was listed for sale on a hacking forum.

Notaries across Romania cannot record new property transactions, and citizens are unable to obtain proof of ownership or detailed land records. Email servers at ANCPI remain offline alongside official apps and websites. The agency has since restored its public website with a notice confirming it is rebuilding its entire network from scratch, though an offline backup appears to have survived — preventing what would have been a catastrophic permanent loss of national property records.

Security firm KELA, which had profiled ByteToBreach last December and initially suggested an Algeria connection, has since identified the individual as Zakaria Mahdjoub from Oran, Algeria. The same actor previously breached Sweden's e-government portal earlier this year and has targeted numerous government agencies and companies over the past twelve months.

Romania now joins Poland, Slovakia, Greece, Morocco, Russia, and Ukraine on the growing list of countries whose land registry agencies have been hacked in the past three years.

Sources: Risky.Biz, Help Net Security