On 17 January 2024, several federal government websites were temporarily down after a cyber attack, reported RTS.
The attack was claimed by the pro-Russian group ‘NoName’ and linked to the presence of Volodymyr Zelensky at the World Economic Forum in Davos.
According to the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) the group launched a DDoS attack. DDoS attacks, which send a high volume of requests to online services to overload them, are aimed at making websites unavailable. They do not result in any data being lost or compromised.
An attack of this kind had been expected, and appropriate security measures were in place. The cyberattack was promptly detected and the Federal Administration’s specialists took the necessary action to restore access to the websites as quickly as possible, reported NCSC in a press release.
Responsibility for the attack was claimed by the hacker group ‘NoName’, which previously targeted the Swiss Federal Administration in June 2023. The presumed pro-Russian group cited Ukrainian President Zelensky’s attendance at the WEF Annual Meeting in Davos as the reason for the DDoS attack.
Hackers generally use such attacks on website availability as a means of gaining media attention for their cause.
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RTS article (in French) – Take a 5 minute French test now
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