Adrian Johnson
TLDR:
- Russian hacktivists are threatening mass attacks against EU elections in retaliation for opposing the illegal invasion of Ukraine.
- NoName57(16) and other pro-Russia hacktivist groups plan to target European internet infrastructure.
A Russian hacktivist crew known as NoName57(16) has vowed to launch mass attacks against European internet infrastructure during the upcoming EU elections. The group, along with seven other organizations and additional anonymous teams, intends to punish the EU for its opposition to the illegal invasion of Ukraine. The digital assault is planned as a response to European Parliament-issued sanctions and what the hacktivists perceive as “Russophobia” and “double-standards” from European authorities. The EU is accused of ignoring alleged atrocities in the Ukrainian region of Donbas, now under heavy Russian attack.
While the specific nature of the planned attacks is not disclosed, it is expected that distributed denial of service (DDoS) disruptions will be utilized, based on past actions by NoName and other similar hacktivist groups. NoName has previously targeted Ukrainian websites, media outlets, and European sites in response to governmental support for Ukraine. Recent concerns have also been raised about pro-Russia hacktivists targeting critical systems like water and wastewater facilities in North America and Europe.
Mandiant’s threat hunters have linked some of these hacktivist collectives to the Russian military Sandworm gang. As EU elections commence, there have already been reports of DDoS attacks on Dutch political parties’ websites attributed to the HackNet crew. However, analysts caution against overstating the impact of these attacks, as their true goal is to create doubt and insecurity rather than cause significant damage to election security.
