Montenegro's National Security Agency on Friday said that several Russian agencies were behind a cyberattack on Montenegrin institutions, Montenegrin media reported, adding this was the peak of the hybrid war.

Montenegro’s intelligence agency also said there was fear that the attack had not reached its peak yet and that all “key infrastructure”, such as the electric power system or water supply, could be targeted.

It said that such an attack had not been carried out anywhere else and that the attack methodology was specific to Russian agencies.

The government earlier said that since Thursday evening Montenegro had been under a new series of organised cyberattacks on the government’s IT infrastructure.

Although certain services have been temporarily shut down for security reasons, the security of citizens and businesses and their data is not threatened in any way. Montenegro has informed international allies of the details of the attacks, which are very similar to those in 2015 and 2016, the government said.

Russian agencies attacked the IT system of the Montenegrin government in 2015 and 2016, ahead of Montenegro’s accession to NATO.

PM Dritan Abazovic convened a meeting of the National Security Council because of the cyberattacks.

Addressing the press, Abazovic said that the latest attacks on the government’s servers were politically motivated and that they were very serious attacks.

He also said that the competent services were monitoring the situation and that the National Security Agency, the Police Directorate and the Ministry of Defence were involved.