Romanian government websites including the defense ministry experienced DDOS attacks on Friday, although officials said the attacks were mainly ‘symbolic’ and were dealt with by the country’s cyber security institutions.
Pro-Russian hacker group Killnet later claimed responsibility for the attacks which impacted the government’s main website, the defense ministry, the border police the national railways and financial institutions, the government said.
By lunchtime, the sites were all functioning.
Killnet has launched similar attacks this month on public institutions in the U.S, Estonia, Poland, and the Czech republic.
The Romanian Intelligence Service’s CYBERINT earlier said the attacks originated outside Romania, and exploited security vulnerabilities.
The defense ministry confirmed the cyber attacks early Friday, insisting that it hadn’t compromised the website’s functioning, only blocked users’ access to it.
Defense Minister, Vasile Dincu, described the attack as “symbolic,” saying it hadn’t compromised databases or the command and control system. The ministry’s website does not contain sensitive or classified databases.
“Such attacks exist on government sites even without a .. war. Our cyber security divisions are prepared. Episodes like this are also from amateurs. Some are institutionally orchestrated,” he said, without offering details.
The Czech Republic, also reported DDoS type cyber-attacks on news sites on Friday morning. The website of Czech public television, CT24, and Czech Radio’s news server iRozhlas.cz were inaccessible for several hours.
Earlier this week, Killnet threatened to attack the Czech media.
Last week, hackers attacked the Czech interior ministry, including the police and the firefighter’s department were attacked, Balkan Insight reported.
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