DTX Manchester DTX Manchester
  • About Us
Tuesday, 2 March, 2021
IT Security Guru
CTX Manchester 2020 banner ad
  • Home
  • Features
  • Insight
  • Events
    • Women in Cyber 2020
    • Women in Cyber 2020 [SPONSORS]
  • Topics
    • Cloud Security
    • Cyber Crime
    • Cyber Warfare
    • Data Protection
    • DDoS
    • Hacking
    • Malware, Phishing and Ransomware
    • Mobile Security
    • Network Security
    • Regulation
    • Skills Gap
    • The Internet of Things
    • Threat Detection
    • AI and Machine Learning
    • Industrial Internet of Things
  • Multimedia
  • Product Reviews
  • About Us
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Features
  • Insight
  • Events
    • Women in Cyber 2020
    • Women in Cyber 2020 [SPONSORS]
  • Topics
    • Cloud Security
    • Cyber Crime
    • Cyber Warfare
    • Data Protection
    • DDoS
    • Hacking
    • Malware, Phishing and Ransomware
    • Mobile Security
    • Network Security
    • Regulation
    • Skills Gap
    • The Internet of Things
    • Threat Detection
    • AI and Machine Learning
    • Industrial Internet of Things
  • Multimedia
  • Product Reviews
  • About Us
No Result
View All Result
IT Security Guru
No Result
View All Result

Europe’s Hacktivists Set Sights on Political Entities

by The Gurus
February 19, 2018
in Editor's News, This Week's Gurus
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

By Roman Sannikov, Director of European Research and Analysis, Flashpoint

 

The tumultuous state of global politics that defined 2017 continues to shape the motivations and schemes of a wide range of adversaries. In October, CNBC reported two Czech election websites were hacked and that, after Catalonia’s independence referendum was ruled illegal, the website for Spain’s Constitutional Court was taken down by a DDoS attack. These are just two of many examples that align with a trend Flashpoint analysts have observed in recent months: the proliferation of hacktivist activity targeting European government and political entities.

In September 2017, Flashpoint analysts observed multiple hacktivist-fuelled DDoS attacks targeting several websites belonging to ministries and individual public officials in multiple European countries. Although these campaigns have been dispersed across central Europe, some actors have tended to concentrate their activity on certain countries. For example, Flashpoint analysts observed that one Turkish nationalist group appears to be focused on targeting the websites of Belgian and Austrian political entities. This group has also indicated its intent to retaliate against any perceived anti-Turkish or anti-Muslim sentiment emanating from European political entities. In one instance, the group posted screenshots of successful DDoS attacks against Danish government institutions, which they claim to have carried out due to perceived insults by Danish politicians against Islam.

More recently in January 2018, Fancy Bears’ Hack Team—a hacktivist group that is allegedly connected to Russian state sponsored activity—released updates to its #OpOlympics campaign. Targeting both the International Olympic Committee and the Norwegian Olympic Committee, the group released hacked E-mail messages that appear to imply a conspiracy to cover up doping. This activity follows previous releases in 2017 of confidential documents from the Swedish Olympic Committee. The releases appear to be an effort to embarrass Olympic organisers and member states in retaliation for the banning of Russian athletes.

While hacktivist groups are often considered less skilled than their cybercriminal and state-sponsored counterparts, the risks they present and resulting damages they can inflict are by no means novel. Typically motivated by fundamental differences of political opinion, hacktivists have been known to disrupt, deface, or otherwise take down targeted websites, web-based services, networks, and infrastructure. Unfortunately, these types of damages became a reality for many following the recent hacktivist-fuelled DDoS attacks that correlated with major 2017 elections in the United Kingdom, Germany, Russia, Czech Republic, and France. It appears that the polarizing effect of these elections continues to contribute to the heightened risks faced by various European political entities.

Flashpoint assesses with a moderate degree of confidence that hacktivist-fuelled DDoS attacks against European political entities will continue in the coming months. While addressing hacktivist activity can be complex and challenging, organisations—not just in Europe, but worldwide—that integrate Business Risk Intelligence (BRI) into their security and risk strategies can and do mitigate these types of risks more effectively. By providing proactive visibility into rising geopolitical tensions, emerging hacktivist threats, and upcoming schemes, BRI enables organisations across all sectors to gain a decision advantage over a broad spectrum of hacktivists and other adversaries.

0 0 vote
Article Rating
FacebookTweetLinkedIn
Tags: Cybercybersecurityhacktivisttech
ShareTweetShare
Previous Post

Positive Technologies detected vulnerabilities in a popular network control software

Next Post

Critical national infrastructure is only as vulnerable as the standard of technology protecting it

Subscribe
Notify of
guest
guest
0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

Recent News

Dripping tap

Learning from past hacking attacks

March 2, 2021
Twitter Logo

Twitter tightens rules on the spread of misinformation

March 2, 2021
A crowd of Trump supporters

“GabLeaks”: Far-Right platform Gab is hacked, with posts leaked online

March 1, 2021
Coding in a laptop

Go is becoming the language of choice for malware developers

March 1, 2021

The IT Security Guru offers a daily news digest of all the best breaking IT security news stories first thing in the morning! Rather than you having to trawl through all the news feeds to find out what’s cooking, you can quickly get everything you need from this site!

Our Address: 10 London Mews, London, W2 1HY

Follow Us

© 2015 - 2019 IT Security Guru - Website Managed by Calm Logic

  • About Us
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Features
  • Insight
  • Events
    • Women in Cyber 2020
    • Women in Cyber 2020 [SPONSORS]
  • Topics
    • Cloud Security
    • Cyber Crime
    • Cyber Warfare
    • Data Protection
    • DDoS
    • Hacking
    • Malware, Phishing and Ransomware
    • Mobile Security
    • Network Security
    • Regulation
    • Skills Gap
    • The Internet of Things
    • Threat Detection
    • AI and Machine Learning
    • Industrial Internet of Things
  • Multimedia
  • Product Reviews
  • About Us

© 2015 - 2019 IT Security Guru - Website Managed by Calm Logic

This site uses functional cookies and external scripts to improve your experience.

More information
wpDiscuz
0
0
Would love your thoughts, please comment.x
()
x
| Reply
Privacy Settings / PENDINGGDPR Compliance

Privacy Settings / PENDING

This site uses functional cookies and external scripts to improve your experience. Which cookies and scripts are used and how they impact your visit is specified on the left. You may change your settings at any time. Your choices will not impact your visit.

NOTE: These settings will only apply to the browser and device you are currently using.

GDPR Compliance

Accept