Royal Family website targeted in apparent Russian cyber attack
The British royal family’s website was taken offline for an hour and a half due to a suspected DDoS attack.
Russian hacker group ‘KillNet’ has claimed responsibility for Sunday morning’s attack, but there has been no official confirmation from Buckingham Palace.
The website, royal.ukis the official domain for information relating to the King, Queen and the British Royal Family.
Russian retaliation for King’s support of Ukraine
The website was the target of a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack, in which a website is overloaded with fake traffic to prevent real users from accessing it. The attack failed to gain access to the site, but managed to take it offline for a few hours and cause it to load slowly later in the day. It appears the site now offers extra protection, with a security check taking place before directing you to the website.
The king recently gave a historic speech to the French Senate chamber in which he expressed support for Ukraine in the conflict with Russia, which may have triggered the cyber attack. Russian hacker groups are known for their retaliatory attacks following statements of support for Ukraine, with many groups openly supporting the Moscow regime.
The KillNet group was recently named in a warning about cyber attacks by intelligence agencies in Britain, the US, Australia, Canada and New Zealand, known as the “Five Eyes”. Russian hacker groups often have connections to the Kremlin itself, carrying out attacks on critical infrastructure, underscoring the importance of good cyber defense.
RiverSafe CTO and cyber expert Oseloka Obiora said: “Whether you are a prince or a pauper, cybercriminals are coming for you and this incident is yet another reminder of the dangers associated with sophisticated online attacks. Going forward, organizations of all sizes must urgently update their cyber defenses, both in terms of skills and software, to prevent malicious hackers from achieving their insidious objectives.”
As cyber attacks become more complex, NATO and the EU have recently committed to increased cyber defense commitments in the wake of attacks on civilian and military infrastructure. This also follows concerns from business leaders about cybersecurity.