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Cyberattacks/ If ATMs stop working... are we ready?

2026-03-11 20:56:40Pikëpamje SHKRUAR NGA RILDO NGJELA
Rildo Ngjela

Albania has a bad habit: it only reacts after the “pilaf”. When systems don’t work, services stop and when citizens ask “what’s going on?”. After the damage has been done. Until then, everything seems normal.

The attack on the Parliament system this week is another signal that tells us that the reality we live in is no longer the same. For the second time, a strategic institution has been targeted by hacker groups linked to Iran. In 2022, official Tirana took an unprecedented step, severing diplomatic relations with official Tehran. This severance worsened the conflict, which has now turned into a cyberattack. The latest attack on the Parliament's communication system, linked to the same hacker group called "Homeland Justice", shows that Albania continues to be a target. So far, the systems of state institutions have been attacked, which in addition to the stalemate have also generated bombastic headlines in the media. Yesterday, it was discussed whether other attacks will occur again. But that is not the question.

The question is: Who's next?

In every country in the world, there is a sector that is considered more critical or strategic than all the others. The financial system. Unlike a ministry's servers going down, where services slow down, if the banking system goes down, the economy stops. If the economy stops, everything else stops.

Let's take the scenario where a cyberattack disrupts the electronic payment system for several hours, maybe even a day. As a result, bank cards do not work, POS terminals do not work and ATMs cannot connect to bank networks. In the first 60 minutes, queues will start at the doors of second-tier banks, businesses will not be able to make any purchases and citizens will only want cash. Under these conditions, this is a scenario that is now being seriously discussed by central banks across Europe. Precisely for this reason, the European Central Bank has recently requested something that sounds like a strange recommendation to many people. Citizens should keep a certain amount of physical cash at home. This does not mean that banks are in danger or the financial system is collapsing. But, as a precautionary measure against a possible cyberattack, such as a power outage or failure of digital infrastructure. In this way, cash remains the only payment system that can function.

Cash does not require electricity, internet, or servers.

Across Europe, this recommendation is part of what experts call “72-hour resilience,” where society must be able to function for three days if digital systems fail. And Albania has a specific geopolitical reality that makes this issue even more sensitive.

The country is now officially the target of cyber operations by a state that considers Albania an adversary. And this is a fact. Cyber ??attacks against the systems of public institutions are just one dimension of this new form of conflict.

In modern security doctrine, attacks against government infrastructures often serve as preliminary tests. In modern warfare, this method is often used to test the weaknesses of the system and assess the state's response capacities. The real targets are strategic infrastructures such as energy, transport and the financial system. In the case of Albania, the first two are almost excluded. While the third one stands. There have been several attempts to hack second-tier banks in the country, but without success. What if they succeed?

The questions about the Bank of Albania are ones that every modern state should ask.

How resilient is the banking system to a coordinated cyber attack?

Are there emergency mechanisms in place in case the system fails? If so, what are they?

Is the Bank of Albania integrated with European cybersecurity frameworks that protect financial infrastructure?

Is there a national contingency plan to guarantee cash liquidity in the event of a disruption of digital systems?

These questions are being asked in Europe today. Unfortunately, in Albania, such scenarios are either ignored or treated as conspiracy theories. The reality is simpler. Cyber ??conflicts have become a permanent feature of modern geopolitics and no country is immune to them. The countries that manage these threats effectively are those that accept the possibility of such risks, even the most peripheral ones, and build stable institutional systems to prevent such events. The medical principle that “prevention is better than cure” has saved many lives around the world. Why not use this principle in our case as well?

Transparency never creates uncertainty, but its absence creates the perfect environment for speculation. And in an era where conflicts are increasingly taking place within the digital system rather than on the traditional battlefield, citizens' trust in public institutions is the most durable infrastructure a country can possess. Because a state can rebuild all its systems from scratch, but rebuilding trust takes decades.


Në përputhje me standarded JTI

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