Powered by MOMENTUM MEDIA
cyber daily logo
Breaking news and updates daily. Subscribe to our Newsletter

Swedish parliament suffers DDoS attack

The Swedish parliament has announced that it has been targeted by a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack.

user icon Daniel Croft
Thu, 04 May 2023
Swedish parliament suffers DDoS attack
expand image

Reports from the Swedish parliament said that the attack brought the site down partially on Tuesday (2 May). The website continued to remain slow on Wednesday.

A spokesperson from the Swedish parliament speaking with Reuters said that work to restore the website is currently underway but said it was unable to say when services would return to normal.

A DDoS attack works by overwhelming a server with so much traffic that legitimate traffic comes to a standstill.

============
============

DDoS attacks are favoured by threat actors because they are versatile and can achieve multiple goals, such as extortion, acting as a distraction, acting as a precursor to a further attack or sending a message.

Sweden has reported an increased number of cyber attacks of late, attributing it to its application to become a NATO nation, which it did in light of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The attack occurred only a day prior to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s meeting with Nordic leaders in Finland, including Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson.

While the nature and timing of the attack suggest that Russian-backed hacktivists or cyber criminals are behind it, nothing has been confirmed.

Ukraine’s Department of Cyber Information Security said late last month that Russian hacktivism does not exist, and instead, these cyber attacks are connected to Russian security services.

“More than 90 per cent of all cyber attacks targeting Ukraine are either conducted by special services or by state-sponsored groups,” Illia Vitiuk told CyberScoop, while speaking at this week’s RSA Conference in San Francisco. “I do believe that there is no so-called ‘hacktivism’ in Russia at all.”

Daniel Croft

Daniel Croft

Born in the heart of Western Sydney, Daniel Croft is a passionate journalist with an understanding for and experience writing in the technology space. Having studied at Macquarie University, he joined Momentum Media in 2022, writing across a number of publications including Australian Aviation, Cyber Security Connect and Defence Connect. Outside of writing, Daniel has a keen interest in music, and spends his time playing in bands around Sydney.

newsletter
cyber daily subscribe
Be the first to hear the latest developments in the cyber industry.