Pro-Russia group Killnet targets Germany due to its support to Ukraine

Pro-Russia group Killnet launched last week DDoS attacks against the websites of German airports, administration bodies, and banks.

The Pro-Russia group Killnet is behind the DDoS attacks that last week hit the websites of German airports, administration bodies, and banks. The attacks are the hacktivists’ response to the German government’s decision to send Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced the decision to send 14 tanks – and allow other countries to send theirs too (which was restricted until now under export regulations) – at a cabinet meeting on Wednesday.

The Federal Cyber Security Authority (BSI) is investigating the attacks.

“The Federal Cyber Security Authority (BSI) had “knowledge of DDoS attacks against targets in Germany””, a spokesman told AFP. “The attacks targeted “in particular at the websites of airports”, as well as some “targets in the financial sector” and “the websites of federal and state administrations””

The Killnet group announced the attacks on its Telegram channel, a common practice of this pro-Russia group.

A German government spokesperson explained that the decision to supply the tanks “follows our well-known line of supporting Ukraine to the best of our ability”.

The BSI explained that it is not easy to attribute the attacks to a specific actor, under the umbrella Killnet operates multiple hacktivists.

“They call for action and then a lot of people take part,” the BSI spokesman said. The attacks made “some websites unavailable”, the BSI said, without there being “any indication of direct impacts on (the organisations’) services”.

German intelligence alerted the government about cyberattacks that Russia-linked threat actors can launch against critical infrastructure in the country.

The level of cyber attacks against the country is higher “than ever.”

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Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – hacking, Killnet)

Pierluigi Paganini

Pierluigi Paganini is member of the ENISA (European Union Agency for Network and Information Security) Threat Landscape Stakeholder Group and Cyber G7 Group, he is also a Security Evangelist, Security Analyst and Freelance Writer. Editor-in-Chief at "Cyber Defense Magazine", Pierluigi is a cyber security expert with over 20 years experience in the field, he is Certified Ethical Hacker at EC Council in London. The passion for writing and a strong belief that security is founded on sharing and awareness led Pierluigi to find the security blog "Security Affairs" recently named a Top National Security Resource for US. Pierluigi is a member of the "The Hacker News" team and he is a writer for some major publications in the field such as Cyber War Zone, ICTTF, Infosec Island, Infosec Institute, The Hacker News Magazine and for many other Security magazines. Author of the Books "The Deep Dark Web" and “Digital Virtual Currency and Bitcoin”.