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On January 25th, Killnet Russian activist threat group put several German websites offline after performing a DDoS attack.
The hackers claimed they targeted government websites, banks, and airports as a reaction to Germany`s decision to supply Ukraine with 2 Leopard tanks. According to Germany’s BSI cyber agency, the attack campaign had low, short-term effects:
Currently, some websites are not accessible. There are currently no indications of direct effects on the respective service and, according to the BSI’s assessment, these are not to be expected if the usual protective measures are taken.
BSI also stated the attack had an impact on some targets in the financial sector.
The DDoS attack is known as Distributed Denial of Service and is a type of cyberattack that prevents people from accessing a website by flooding that target website with a large number of illegitimate requests. Due to the high volume of traffic artificially directed towards them, the servers are knocked offline and the website becomes unavailable.
The Killnet DDoS Attack Campaign in Context
While Kyiv sees Berlin`s sending heavy weaponry as crucial to defeat Russia’s invasion, Moscow considers the decision to be a provocation.
Russian threat group Killnet has repeatedly targeted those who oppose Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and claims to be a “hacktivist” organization. In June 2022, after Lithuania banned the flow of commodities to the Russian province of Kaliningrad, Killnet claimed the DDoS attack that hit the Lithuanian government.
As usual, Russia denies being involved in the cyberattack, as Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov claimed that they:
Are not aware of what (Killnet) is. We honestly wonder why any group of hackers is associated with Russia and not with some other European country
But western officials consider the Russian government employs cyberespionage against other nations’ governments and businesses to acquire a competitive edge.
According to U.S. cyber researchers, Killnet works with another Russian threat group, Xaknet. In the past, Xaknet claimed to have breached many Ukrainian organizations and researchers belive they are connected to Russian intelligence services.
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