Dutch, European Hospitals ‘Hit by Pro-Russian Hackers’

dutch,-european-hospitals-‘hit-by-pro-russian-hackers’

Dutch cyber authorities said Wednesday that several hospital websites in the Netherlands and Europe were likely targeted by a pro-Kremlin hacking group because of their countries’ support for Ukraine.

The UMCG hospital in the northern Dutch city of Groningen, one of the largest in the country, saw its website crash in a cyberattack on Saturday.

“European hospitals including in the Netherlands have most likely been hit by the pro-Russian hacking group Killnet,” said the Dutch National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC).

“This group announced DDoS attacks on among other things, hospitals (in countries) helping Ukraine in its war against Russia,” it said.

A distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack is designed to overwhelm the target with a flood of internet traffic, preventing the system from functioning normally.

Although reports say that Killnet threatened to target some 31 hospitals throughout the Netherlands, so far only the UMCG seems to have been affected.

“Currently the DDoS attacks are successfully mitigated and the impact of the attacks is limited,” the NCSC said.

Hospitals in Britain, Germany, Poland, Scandinavia and the United States were also said to be targeted.

Last week the websites of German airports, public administration bodies and financial sectors were hit in an attack believed to have been launched by Killnet.

The same group was also linked to a DDoS attack on the European Parliament website in November, shortly after lawmakers approved a resolution calling Moscow a “state sponsor of terrorism.”

The post Dutch, European Hospitals ‘Hit by Pro-Russian Hackers’ appeared first on SecurityWeek.

Cyberattacks Target Websites of German Airports, Admin

cyberattacks-target-websites-of-german-airports,-admin

The websites of German airports, public administration bodies and financial sector organizations have been hit by cyberattacks instigated by a Russian “hacker group”, authorities said Thursday.

The Federal Cyber Security Authority (BSI) had “knowledge of DDoS attacks against targets in Germany”, a spokesman told AFP.

A distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack is designed to overwhelm the target with a flood of internet traffic, preventing the system from functioning normally.

The attacks were aimed “in particular at the websites of airports”, as well as some “targets in the financial sector” and “the websites of federal and state administrations”, the spokesman said.

The attack had been “announced by the Russian hacker group Killnet”, the 
BSI spokesman said. 

The group’s call to arms was in response to Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s announcement Wednesday that Germany would send Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine to help repel the Russian invasion, according to financial daily Handelsblatt.

Attributing Thursday’s attacks directly to the hacker group, however, was “particularly hard”, the BSI spokesman said.

“They call for action and then a lot of people take part,” he said. The attacks made “some websites unavailable”, the BSI said, without there being “any indication of direct impacts on (the organisations’) services”.

Attacks on public administrations were “largely repelled with no serious 
impacts”, the BSI said.

The interior ministry for southwestern Baden-Wuerttemberg state acknowledged “nationwide” DDoS attacks since Wednesday evening against websites, including those of public administration and the regional police.

Germany is on high alert for cyberattacks in the wake of Russia’s war in Ukraine.

The Federal Office for Information Security said in October that the threat level for hacking attacks and other cybercrime activities was higher “than ever”.

The post Cyberattacks Target Websites of German Airports, Admin appeared first on SecurityWeek.