Swiss websites hit by DDoS attack ahead of Zelenskiy video address

Reuters
Updated ·1 min read
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Ukraine's President Zelenskyi pays tribute to Ukrainian servicemen killed in battle for the Moshchuk village, in Kyiv region

GENEVA (Reuters) -Swiss authorities said that several government websites were targeted in a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack on Monday that was claimed by pro-Russian hackers.

The attack comes as the Swiss parliament prepares for a video address by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy scheduled for Thursday and coincides with a national holiday in Russia.

Switzerland's National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) said that "various websites of the Federal Administration and enterprises affiliated with the Confederation were unavailable" in the wake of the attack, claimed by the NoName hacking group.

"The NCSC is analysing the attack together with the administrative units concerned and defining appropriate measures," it said in a statement.

The NCSC, which did not link Zelenskiy's upcoming address to the attack, said the NoName group had also been behind a separate attack against the Swiss parliament's website last week.

In a post on the Telegram messenger service, the group said the attack against the parliament's website last week had been carried out to "thank Swiss Russophobes" for adopting another EU sanctions package against Moscow.

The group, which pledged to continue defending Russian interests "on the information front," added it had taken down the websites of Switzerland's justice ministry and police.

(Reporting by Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber; Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise and Hugh Lawson)