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Mamuka Khazaradze talks about his new movement

By Nika Gamtsemlidze
Wednesday, August 14
A cyberattack was carried out on the central server of the TV Pirveli channel yesterday morning, said the channel in a statement, causing complete paralysis of one of the most popular Georgian broadcasters.

According to the TV station's report, "it is impossible to broadcast the channel fully. "Business Morning" has not been aired,” there were also some problems on broadcasting other political and news shows of the channel.

According to the journalist Diana Trapaidze, hackers attacked the Television with a new generation, so-called cryptovirus. “TV Pirveli tries to switch to backup resources. The investigation team already came and they removed the server. I would like to emphasize that to reach the audience, the only chance we have is live broadcasting,” noted Trapaidze.

According to TV Pirveli, representatives of the investigation department have already left the TV company. As Nana Aburjanidze said, commercial director of the TV company, the law enforcers requested detailed information about the server in order to investigate.

The commercial director of TV Pirveli said that she could not talk about the reasons behind the cyberattack on the TV company, but also noted that there is nothing “happening accidentally around our television.”

Giorgi Gvasalia, a cybersecurity specialist, spoke about the details that are necessary for the security of the television. He noted that the management of the television should discuss, analyze, and say that there is more to be done in this direction.

Cybersecurity expert says that standard and classical crypto viruses are aimed to extorting money.

According to the Chairperson of the Parliament of Georgia, Archil Talakvadze, “if there was any kind of cyberattack on the channel, the authorities will do everything to investigate it. Blaming the government in this situation is not logical.”

As the Speaker said, the relevant authorities will make every effort to investigate the case but adds that it is a very hard and complex task. As for the allegations against the authorities that cyberattacks on TV Pirveli are not accidental and are related to the latest developments, Talakvadze said that "this is a groundless accusation."

Last week, the founder of TV Pirveli, Vakhtang Tsereteli, was interviewed at the Tbilisi City Court, where he was summoned for the case of TBC Bank founders Mamuka Khazaradze and Badri Japaridze.

As the Prosecutor, Archil Tkeshelashvili said, the investigation had legitimate questions with Tsereteli, who owned the shares of “Samgori M” and “Samgori Trade” 11 years ago. These companies are listed in Khazaradze-Japaridze's case.

Cryptovirus is a malware that disables the normal operation of a computer until money, or other ransom is paid to the person or organization responsible for the malware.