#GermanyRIP. Kremlin-loyal hacktivists wage DDoSes to retaliate for tank aid
Threat actors loyal to the Kremlin have stepped up attacks in support of its invasion of Ukraine, with denial-of-service attacks hitting German banks and other organizations and the unleashing of a new destructive data wiper on Ukraine.
Germany's BSI agency, which monitors cybersecurity in that country, said the attacks caused small outages but ultimately did little damage.
“Currently, some websites are not accessible,” the BSI said in a statement to news agencies. “There are currently no indications of direct effects on the respective service and, according to the BSI's assessment, these are not to be expected if the usual protective measures are taken.”
The distributed denial-of-service attacks, typically called DDoSes, appeared to come as retaliation for the German government’s decision to allow its advanced Leopard 2 tanks to be supplied to Ukraine. Researchers at security firm Cado Labs said on Wednesday that Russian-language hacktivist groups—including one calling itself Killnet—issued calls for its members to wage DDoSes against targets in Germany. The campaign, which began on Tuesday as the Leopard 2 tank decision appeared immanent, used the hashtag #ГерманияRIP, which translates to “#GermanyRIP.”
Messages soon followed from other Russian-speaking groups claiming attacks against the websites of major German airports, including Hamburg, Dortmund, Dresden, and Dusseldorf; German development agency GIZ; Germany’s national police site; Deutsche Bank; and online payment system Giropay. It wasn’t clear if any of the attacks successfully shut down the sites.
