Pro-Russian hackers block Senate website

Cyberattacks have multiplied in recent months, and pro-Russian groups have a large share in these malicious actions. This Friday since mid-morning, the Senate website was inaccessible. This blocking was claimed by the NoName group, a collective of pro Russian hackers. They were already at the origin of the hacking of the National ***embly website in March .

NoName claimed to be at the origin of this cyberattack on its Telegram channel in the middle of the morning, via a message in Russian and English, criticizing France’s support for Ukraine in the conflict between the latter and Russia. “We read in the press that France is working with Ukraine on a new aid plan which may include weapons, as well as statements by Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna” and “we blocked the Senate website French,” NoName explained.

France regularly targeted

The Senate wrote on Twitter that its technicians were actively working to unblock the institution’s site. This hack could be a denial of service attack, the site being overwhelmed with requests, an expert told AFP. For the ***embly, the hack lasted several hours in March.

NoName was created in March 2022 and is one of 80 Russian and pro-Russian hacker collectives that regularly attack institutions in Western countries that support Ukraine, particularly in Western Europe. These groups have multiplied since the beginning of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. Unlike traditional hackers, they act for political reasons and generally do not demand a monetary ransom.

France is often affected by this type of attack from the East. Several town hall sites were thus affected by cyberattacks by pro-Russian collectives last week. These were the town halls of Bry-sur-Marne (Val-de-Marne), Juziers (Yvelines) and Ambérieu-en-Bugey (Ain). The hackers acted by directly targeting the company Abtel, in Nîmes, which hosts these different internet addresses.

On Thursday, hackers posted a message in Russian on the website of the town hall of Bry-sur-Marne, saying “Respect Russia! Otherwise we will continue to wage war on you, ”said the Val-de-Marne prefecture. The town hall of Bry-sur-Marne filed a complaint against X, and the section for the fight against cybercrime in Paris was in charge of the investigation. This offense is punishable by five years’ imprisonment and a fine of 150,000 euros.

According to AFP