Cyberattack Disrupts Romania's Real Estate Market

A suspected Algerian hacker has reportedly caused a standstill in Romania's real estate market by deleting the country’s entire land registry database following a failed extortion attempt. The ramifications of this cyberattack have left the market in a state of paralysis.

The hacker, identified as Zakaria Mahdjoub and known by the alias "Bytetobreach," has a history of cyberattacks targeting various state institutions, banks, and airlines across multiple countries including Ukraine, Poland, Cyprus, Chile, and the USA.

Attack on the Land Registry Office

Reports indicate that Mahdjoub targeted Romania's National Water Management Authority in late 2025, as noted by the portal Public Record. The Israeli cybersecurity firm Kela has linked him to the recent attack on Romania's land registry office, ANCPI.

It appears that the hacker successfully infiltrated the land registry and cadastre system of Romania. Following his failed extortion attempt, Mahdjoub deleted all stored data and claimed that he ensured the information could not be easily restored.

Stolen Data Offered on the Dark Web

After the attack, Mahdjoub began offering the stolen data for sale on the Dark Web. This cache includes access credentials of employees from the affected agency, internal documents, and details about the ANCPI network. The hacker reportedly gained access to the database using valid credentials.

The impact on Romania's real estate sector has been profound, with operations effectively frozen since mid-July 2026.

Romania's Real Estate Market Comes to a Halt

Since the cyberattack, the agency's apps and websites have been completely offline. As a result, new transactions cannot be notarized, and property ownership records cannot be accessed, according to reports from heise.de.

Initially, the Romanian land registry office attributed the disruption to technical issues rather than a cyber incident. However, they later confirmed that a complete overhaul and consolidation of their systems is underway. Contrary to earlier claims, the ANCPI asserts that it possesses multiple backups of its systems.

Will the Land Registry Database Be Restored Soon?

The agency is currently working on a migration of the ANCPI application to the cloud, with expectations set for completion by July 22, 2026. It remains to be seen whether Mahdjoub's assertion that the data cannot be restored holds any truth.