The Belgian Centre for Cybersecurity (CCB) has confirmed that for the second day running cyber-attacks have been launched against websites in Belgium. So-called DDoS attacks have been launched against local authority and port authority websites. On Monday cyber-attacks caused the websites of several Belgian provincial and municipal authorities to crash.
A merssage on the social media platform Telegram indicates that as was the case yesterday a Russian group is behind today’s cyber-attacks. The group that goes by the name of NoName057 says that it targets all possible allies of Ukraine.
The group attempts to force websites off-line by directing huge amounts of internet traffic to them, forcing them to overload. The Centre for Cybersecurity stress that DDoS attacks are not dangerous.
Ports and municipalities
A message posted on the group’s Telegram channel at 8:44am on Tuesday morning shows a list of Belgian municipalities and ports. These include the ports of Antwerp, Zeebrugge, Brussels and Liège as well as the Shipnext and European Sea Ports Organisation (ESPO) websites.
The websites of the Flemish Brabant municipalities of Sint-Genesius-Rode, Kraainem, Wemmel, Bever, Drogenbos, Wezembeek-Oppem and Linkebeek are also targeted as are the websites of the East Flemish town of Ronse and the West Flemish municipality of Spiere-Helkijn. Most of the sites listed above were forced offline on Tuesday morning.
In a message claiming responsibility for the cyber-attack, the group mentions next Sunday’s local elections. This could be the reason why local authority websites have been targeted.