Posted on May 4, 2023 at 2:59 PM
DDoS attack disrupts access to Sweden’s parliament web page
The Swedish Parliament has been targeted by a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack. This DDoS attack has disrupted the web page access for Sweden’s Parliament. The attack comes in the wake of increased activity from hacktivist groups launching DDoS campaigns against their adversaries.
Sweden’s Parliament hit by a DDoS attack
DDoS campaigns are usually aimed at crippling the normal operations of a website to ensure that a user cannot access the site. During this attack, a threat actor will direct high volumes of internet traffic to the targeted servers. The threat actors behind these campaigns aim to knock the servers offline and disrupt the target’s online presence.
The web page for Sweden’s Parliament remained down on Tuesday because of the attack. While it was restored on Wednesday, it still appeared slow and could not respond at faster speeds.
A spokesperson from the Parliament commented on the development, saying that an analysis of this attack showed that it was a DDoS campaign. The spokesperson noted that the effects of the attack were that the web page was now slow, and it could be difficult to watch the webcasts.
DDoS attacks have become increasingly popular. Hacktivist groups prefer these attacks because they are not costly to launch. Moreover, the attacks do not require much knowledge from the hacker to launch as the service can easily be purchased from a third-party platform. Despite being easy and cheap to launch, DDoS attacks can cause significant harm to the targets.
The attack against Sweden’s Parliament happened a few days before the Swedish Prime Minister, Ulf Kristersson, and other Nordic leaders met the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the Finnish capital on Wednesday.
DDoS attacks have increased significantly since the invasion of Ukraine by Russia early last year. Sweden applied for NATO membership shortly after the war started. Authorities have since warned government agencies and organizations in the country to be cautious of increased cyberattacks that are against the interests of Sweden.
The Swedish authorities said that work to restore the normal web page operations for its Parliament was still ongoing. However, the spokesperson said it was impossible to say when normalcy would be restored, and the website would become fully functional.
It is not the first time that hacktivist groups have targeted lawmakers. In August last year, the website of the Finnish Parliament was down for several hours after a DDoS attack launched by Russian threat actors. The attack targeted the Parliament’s external website. The Finnish Parliament said it was working with service providers and the Cybersecurity Center to mitigate the attack.
The attack was linked to a pro-Russian threat actor group known as NoName057(16). The group claimed responsibility for this attack on their Telegram channel. At the time, the hackers said that the attack was motivated by Finland’s intention to join NATO. The attack also happened the same day US President Joe Biden supported Finland and Sweden joining NATO.
Increased activity from hacktivist groups
Pro-Russia hacktivist groups have become increasingly active since the Ukraine invasion. A recent report by Radware noted that the Western world was under attack by Pro-Russian threat actors.
One of the most notorious Russian hacktivist groups is KillNet. The group is known for launching DDoS attacks against the government and private company websites supporting Ukraine in the ongoing war.
The KillNet hacking group reformed its operations shortly after the invasion started, with the objective of protecting the interests of Russian citizens. Before this invasion, the group sold DDoS-for-hire services through their botnet.
The goals of the KillNet hacking group align with those of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) and the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR). However, any links between the KillNet group and the Russian government have not been confirmed.
KillNet is also a media-savvy group, and it publicly claims responsibility for all its attack. The group has generated a lot of attention that has seen it create a large social following and attract other hacktivist groups that share the same objectives. Other hacktivist groups that have worked with KillNet include Anonymous Russia, Anonymous Sudan, Infinity Hackers Group, among others.
Infinity Team was created through a collaboration between KillNet and the Deanon Club. In February this year, Infinity Team created its own forum and marketplace known as Infinity. This forum provides access to advertisement spaces and paid status for those that want to conduct business on the forum. It also offers hacking services such as DDOS through its hack shop.
