Updated on 2022-11-28: European Parliament Website Hit with DDoS
The website of the European Parliament (EP) was temporarily taken down last week due to a cyberattack. The attack came just hours after the legislative body passed a resolution calling the Kremlin a “state sponsor of terrorism.” An EP spokesperson said the website was the target of a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack. The website is now operating as usual.
Note
- Nations and their surrogates often use DDoS attacks to ‘voice’ displeasure at perceived political slights. While this attack could be viewed as more of a nuisance, it should serve as a reminder for organizations to revisit their recovery plans for service disruptions that impact business operations.
- The Russian group Killnet claimed responsibility for this attack. With the current prevalence of DDoS attacks, don’t overlook one being aimed at you in response to a decision, press release, etc. Make sure that your cyber defenses are up-to-snuff. Don’t forget to assess on-premises (including your ISP) as well as outsourced/cloud services to make sure you not only have DDoS protections enabled but also that they are tested. Also make sure the security on your endpoints is sufficient to detect and protect them from being used as a botnet, no matter who they are aimed towards.
- Denial of service attacks are among the few that are cheaper to mitigate than to prevent. Mitigation will involve upstream providers. Know those people by name.
Read more in
- European Parliament declares Russia a terrorism sponsor, then its site goes down
- EU Parliament Website Attacked After MEPs Slam Russian ‘Terrorism’
- European Parliament Putin things back together after cyber attack
- Pro-Russian hacktivists take down EU Parliament site in DDoS attack
- Russian KillNet Shuts Down EU Parliament Website With DDoS
Overview: EU Parliament DDoS attack
The EU Parliament said its servers were subject to a DDoS attack hours after they proclaimed the Russian government as a sponsor of terrorism. A pro-Kremlin hacktivist group took credit for the attack, according to Roberta Metsola, President of the EU Parliament. The agency’s website resumed operations after two hours. Read more: EU lawmakers name Russia a ‘state sponsor’ of terrorism
