With the start of the European elections, the risk of cyber attacks orchestrated by Russian hackers, with the aim of destabilizing Europe. Institutions, industrial assets and even ordinary citizens are targets of these possible attacks. On the day of the start of the vote for the European Parliament, which began on Thursday in the Netherlands, the Russian cybercriminal group noname057(16) announced attacks on internet infrastructure of European countries, raising concerns about the security and integrity of the electoral process. Meanwhile, the group Hacknet has already won the Dutch vote while in recent days attacks have hit German parties.
Furthermore, the advent ofartificial intelligence also increases the risk of viral spread of videos and fake news targeted political figures shortly before elections.
Russian hackers: ready for action, the announcement on Telegram
On their Telegram channel, Noname057(16) described the European Parliament as a "pseudo-democratic and profoundly Russophobic body", accusing it of "having pretended for eight years not to notice the genocide of the population of Donbass". The hackers also criticized the “senseless anti-Russian sanctions” and launched a ominous warning: "We are coming! Glory to Russia!”. The hacker campaign sees the participation of other criminal groups such as People's CyberArmy, HackNeT and Cyberdragon.
Who are NoName057(16)
NoName057(16) is a group of pro-Russian hackers, active since March 2022, which has claimed numerous cyber attacks against Ukrainian, US and European targets, including government, media and corporate websites. Prefers DDoS attacks, often claimed on Telegram, and created the DDosia platform to allow anyone to carry out such attacks in exchange for monetary rewards. The group targets countries considered "enemies of Russia", such as Ukraine, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, Norway, Finland, Italy, the United Kingdom and the United States. In Italy, it hit institutional and corporate sites in February and March 2023 and during the visit of Ukrainian President Zelenskyj to Rome in May 2023.
First attacks in the Netherlands
The first wave of attacks has already hit the Netherlands, who began voting for the European elections on Thursday. Among claimed objectives there are the Ministry of Justice and the Amsterdam public transport company GVB.
Several Dutch political parties, including Geert Wilders' far-right (PVV), the Christian Democrats (CDA) and the populists of Thierry Baudet's Forum for Democracy (FvD), have reported DDoS attacks (distributed denial-of-service) to their websites. The pro-Russian group claimed responsibility for the attacks on Telegram HackNet.
Parties hit in Germany
Also the Germany has been the target of cyber-attacks in the days preceding the elections. The German Christian Democrats (CDU) was hit by a “large-scale” attack that knocked out its digital infrastructure for a considerable period. From the Konrad-Adenauer-Haus, the party headquarters, no names were mentioned about the possible perpetrators, but Berlin seems to have no doubts: it would be the GRU men, the Russian military intelligence service. The German Ministry of the Interior has initiated all the necessary countermeasures and has extended the alarm to all parties present in the Bundestag.
