The Basic Public Prosecutor's Office for Organised Crime and Corruption has been running a pre-investigation for six months over suspicions that unauthorised data extraction may have occurred in the Cabinet of President Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova. What seems confidential: this pre-investigation could pull Macedonia into a diplomatic scandal with one of our neighbours or with somebody with whom we share sensitive intelligence circles.

The story began with an anonymous criminal complaint filed with the Prosecutor's Office last December, signed by a "group of Interior Ministry employees". It alleged that data in the presidential cabinet's computer system had been copied and encrypted, and that there is suspicion they could have ended up with foreign intelligence services.

Under suspicion is the IT administrator in the Cabinet, allegedly linked to an intelligence service. The complaint also named other officials from the Cabinet and from the Intelligence Agency, suspected of possibly taking part in concealing evidence.

The Prosecutor's Office issued warrants for searching computer systems and for extracting data from computers handed over by the Cabinet. So far, the Interior Ministry hasn't reported that the encrypted data has been decoded. Which means: we know it was copied, but we don't know exactly what it contains.

This case calls for careful handling. First - it's a suspicion, not established guilt. An anonymous complaint isn't evidence. A pre-investigation isn't an indictment. But the political ground this is happening on, and the timing, can't be ignored.

What does the Balkan context look for? Macedonian institutions have a chronic problem with internal security of sensitive data. Every minister learns this at the start of their term in the briefing on how foreign intelligence operates in the region. From Skopje to Sarajevo, from Podgorica to Tirana, our cabinets sit under the microscope of foreign powers - Russian, Turkish, Chinese, Western, regional. The question isn't whether it's happening. The question is who, and for how long.

This case, even if it ends without an indictment, should lead to systemic audits of IT security in the highest state institutions. And the media has to work carefully - public hysteria substitutes verification with a verdict. In the end, that helps neither side.