NATO websites hit in cyber attack over Crimea stance
Monday, 17 March 2014 00:00
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BRUSSELS/LONDON: Unidentified hackers brought down several public NATO websites with cyber attacks on Saturday, the alliance said, in what appeared the latest escalation in cyberspace over growing tensions over Crimea.
A group calling itself “cyber berkut” said the attack had been carried out by patriotic Ukrainians angry over what they saw as NATO interference in their country.
The claim, made at www.cyber-berkut.org, could not immediately be independently verified. Cyber berkut is a reference to the feared and since disbanded riot squads used by the government of ousted pro-Russian Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich.
As well as the main NATO website www.NATO.int, the website of a NATO-affiliated cyber security centre in Estonia was also affected. The alliance said none of its essential systems were compromised.
Occupied by Russian forces for over a week, the largely Russian-speaking Crimea holds a referendum on seceding from Ukraine to join Russia on Sunday. NATO states have opposed the move, calling it unconstitutional and effectively an annexation of Ukraine’s sovereign territory.
NATO spokeswoman Oana Lungescu said the websites had been taken down by distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks.
“Our experts working to restore normal function,” she said via the social networking site Twitter. “No operational impact. The attack hasn’t affected the integrity of NATO’s systems.”
She made no comment on where the attack might have originated.
John Bumgarner, Chief Technology Officer at the US Cyber Consequences Unit, a non-profit research institute, said initial evidence strongly suggested that these cyber attacks were launched by pro-Russian sympathisers.
