The European Investment Bank (EIB) indicated on Twitter yesterday afternoon that the websites eib.org and eif.org are not accessible due to a cyber attack. The attack was announced a few hours earlier via posts and videos by the pro-Russian hacker groups Anonymous Sudan and Killnet. The websites are still not accessible.
DDOS attack
The EIB has not yet provided further details, but it is believed to be a DDOS attack . The website is flooded with visitors, often in the form of bots. This ensures that the website is temporarily inaccessible. This is a common technique used by pro-Russian hacktivists. Anonymous Sudan was also responsible for the attack on the Microsoft 365 Suite earlier this month that prevented users in the US from accessing the service for several hours.
The European Investment Bank is the EU’s financial institution. It finances projects that promote European economic and social development. She is also a major shareholder of the European Investment Fund (EIF). The cyber attack on the EIB is part of a targeted attack on European financial institutions by pro-Russian hackers in response to European support for Ukraine. Tech Monitor reports that they want to stop the flow of money and weapons to the occupied country.
DARKNET parliament
Together with the hacker groups Anonymous Sudan and REvil, Killnet has united in what they themselves call the DARKNET parliament. They coined this term last Friday via Telegram. From this collaboration, they want to collectively impose ‘sanctions’ on Europe. The hacker group Killnet made the following statement about their objectives via their Telegram channel:
“Hello Europe! How are things with the IBAN banking system? I feel like something is wrong with her. Perhaps the transfer system is affected by bad weather. And also the weather forecasters say that not only IBAN will be dead, but also SEPA, WISE, SWIFT.”
Since the attack on Ukraine, Russian banks have been banned from SWIFT payments. The collective is also calling on other hackers to join. It is not known whether other financial institutions have already become victims of the hacker collective.