DDoS campaign: Cyber criminals paralyze German company websites
Various groups with links to Russia have indiscriminately attacked German companies and authorities in a joint campaign. And not only with success.
(Image: Shutterstock.com / Gorodenkoff)
Some German companies are currently receiving considerably more packets than desired. The originator is the Russian dDoS gang NoName057(16), which has called for action together with henchmen. The criminals are not extorting ransom money from those affected, but are using the attacks as a political message.
In its presence on the Telegram platform, the group, which is dominated by Russian state interests, has announced several targets, including the weapons manufacturer Walther and the press department of the Vattenfall Group. The list of victims seems random, including a manufacturer of wood-based materials, automotive suppliers and a construction chemicals company. The websites attacked were temporarily difficult or impossible to access on the morning of December 17.
Federal authorities knocked off the net?
The day before, the flood of parcels had targeted two German federal authorities, among others: The Federal Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information (BfDI) and the Federal Network Agency were allegedly attacked by a Russian support group. In their victory announcement, the Russians apparently laid it on a little too thick: neither the BfDI nor its host, the ITZBund, noticed any effects of the attack; according to the agency, the BfDI website was continuously accessible. The Federal Network Agency did not immediately respond to an inquiry by heise security.
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The group apparently also wants to take action against German media. Using a Telegram bot, it set a task for its supporters to collect 30 URLs and email addresses of German media companies – NoName057(16) already attacked the websites of "nd" on December 16.
The dDoS group NoName057(16) makes no secret of its origins: the group's avatar is a Russian bear in military uniform on a skull-armored laptop. Other "allies" of the group claim to be located in Algeria and other North African countries, which cannot be independently verified. The group uses its Telegram channel to recruit volunteers from all over the world to take part in the attacks.
(cku)
