One of the official broadcasters of Euro 2024 has confirmed that it was hit by multiple cyber attacks that disrupted the online broadcast of a major match.
The Polish broadcaster TVP said this in a statement after on Twitter/X that it has been the target of DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attacks twice during the tournament.
The attacks were able to disrupt the online broadcast of the match between Poland and Austria on Friday the 21st, following an earlier disruption of the match between Poland and the Netherlands last weekend.
“Technical issues” or DDoS attack?
“We apologize for the technical problems associated with the broadcast of the Poland-Austria match on the Internet,” TVP said in its message.
“After less than a minute, we took action in coordination with national operators, which led to a weakening of the attack. The IT teams have restored service.”
DDoS attacks attempt to target websites by bombarding them with large amounts of traffic, overwhelming servers and taking them offline – which in this case left the online broadcast struggling with the volume of traffic it had to handle.
TVP said the earlier attack appeared to have been launched from IP addresses in Poland, but did not comment on the later incident.
In a separate statement, Pawel Olszewski, the Polish government’s deputy minister of digital affairs, said evidence in local media suggested Russian sources were behind the attack.
Olszewski said the attack was intended to “deter Polish citizens from watching the match online” but that “the attack was quickly repulsed… If our services had not been alert, real unrest could have arisen as everyone eagerly was looking forward to the Euro.” and this match.”
TVP revealed it has also launched an alternative website to stream future broadcasts of Euro 2024 matches, including Poland’s final match against France later this week.
Through Reuters