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In the wake of Germany’s decision to send tanks to help Ukraine continue to defend its territory against Russian aggression, Russian hackers have targeted a swathe of German targets, including several airports.
The attacks began last week, before the Killnet hacking group took responsibility.
The German Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) has been investigating the attacks, and said that given Killnet’s tactics, it is hard to confirm the group’s involvement.
“They call for action and then a lot of people take part,” a BSI spokesperson told Agence France-Presse.
The attacks, which began on 26 January, targeted various government websites, airports, and financial institutions. Killnet then took responsibility for the attacks on the group’s Telegram channel.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced that 14 Leopard 2 tanks would be sent to Ukraine on 25 January, and that other countries in possession of Leopard 2s would now also be able to send them. Previously, export regulations meant other nations were restricted from sending the German-made Leopard 2s without express German permission.
The United States has also joined Germany, offering its own M1A1 Abrams tanks to the beleaguered country.
BSI has admitted that the attacks, though widespread, did little actual harm. The Ministry of the Interior in Baden-Württemberg offered a little more detail on the attacks on some of its law enforcement infrastructure.
“The installed security measures have taken effect, and as a precautionary measure, the server was shut down on the advice of IT security at around 7:30pm to avoid possible damage,” the ministry said. “Since then, the website polizei-bw.de has been temporarily unavailable.”
For many pro-Russian groups, such attacks are just as much about propaganda as causing any real disruption to their targets. Announcing their attacks via social media causes a spike in traffic on their sites and gives them a wider audience to spread memes and Russia-centric news.
The war in Ukraine has seen a mammoth surge in hacking attempts, by both sides and by opportunistic third parties. This month, hackers attempted to disrupt Ukraine’s National News Agency — though, again, to little effect — and an online fundraising campaign that was auctioning off a Banksy artwork to raise money for humanitarian aid on the frontline.
David Hollingworth has been writing about technology for over 20 years, and has worked for a range of print and online titles in his career. He is enjoying getting to grips with cyber security, especially when it lets him talk about Lego.
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