This article was last updated on October 8, 2024
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Pro-Russian group shuts down websites of Belgian ports and local authorities
Websites of Belgian ports and local authorities have been shut down by a DDoS attack. It is an attack by a pro-Russian hacker collective, the Flemish broadcaster reports VRT.
The cyber attacks were announced and carried out by the pro-Russian hacker group ‘NoName057’. The messaging app Telegram sent a list of Belgian municipalities and ports, such as those of the municipalities of Brussels and Liège and the port of Antwerp.
Yesterday, websites of Belgian provinces were also attacked by the hacker group. According to the Belgian Center for Cybersecurity, most websites are back up and running.
What is a DDoS attack?
If you wanted to carry out a DDoS attack in the real world, you would have to arrange with a large group of people to stand in front of the door of your target – for example a retail chain or other company. That group must be so large that normal customers are no longer able to enter.
This is how a DDoS attack works, but with data packets instead of people. So many packets are fired that a computer server becomes clogged and no longer has room for legitimate internet traffic.
A cyber expert from VRT suspects that the attack is related to the decision of the Belgian Ministry of Defense to buy Caesar guns for Ukraine. In the message in which the hackers claim the DDoS attack, they say they are carrying out attacks on all allies of Ukraine.
The pro-Russian collective also refers to the elections in Belgian provinces and municipalities, which will be held this Sunday. The VRT cyber expert emphasizes that hacking voting computers is of a different nature than carrying out a DDoS attack.
Dutch ports
Last year, the same hacker collective created websites from Dutch ports shut down. The websites of port authorities in Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Den Helder, among others, were inaccessible for a few hours, and the website of the Groningen port authority was down all weekend.
As with the Belgian attack, only the website of the port companies was affected. The ports themselves remained operational, because they run on a different system.
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