Swiss
government
websites
were
taken
offline
through
the
use
of
targeted
distributed-denial-of-service
(DDoS)
attacks
ahead
of
a
video
address
by
Ukranian
President,
Volodymyr
Zelensky.
DDoS
attacks
disrupt
sites
by
overwhelming
their
infrastructure
with
a
large
amount
of
internet
traffic.
As
DDoS
attacks
overwhelm
a
site’s
bandwidth,
this
prevents
users
from
accessing
it.
The
disruption
to
the
Swiss
government
sites
was
discovered
on
June
12,
as
the
Swiss
parliament
prepared
for
a
video
address
by
President
Zelensky.
The
address
in
scheduled
for
June
15,
which
is
also
a
national
holiday
in
Russia.
The
Swiss
National
Cyber
Security
Center
(NCSC)
reported
that
“various
websites
of
the
Federal
Administration
and
enterprises
affiliated
with
the
Confederation
were
unavailable”
due
to
the
DDoS
attacks
launched
against
them.
The
NCSC
said
that
it
will
be
attempting
to
reduce
disruption
and
return
to
normalcy
by
“taking
measures
to
restore
accessibility
to
the
websites
and
applications
as
quickly
as
possible”.
It
also
said
that
it
will
be
“analyzing
the
attack
together
with
the
administrative
units
concerned
and
defining
appropriate
measures”.
Pro-Russia
hackers
have
since
come
out
as
the
perpetrators
of
the
DDoS
attacks,
with
Russian
hacking
group
NoName
claiming
the
attack.
In
a
post
via
messaging
service
Telegram,
the
group
said
the
DDoS
attack
was
launched
against
the
parliament’s
website
to
“thank
Swiss
Russophobes”
for
taking
on
another
EU
sanctions
package
against
Moscow.
The
group
also
claimed
that
it
had
defended
Russia
“on
the
information
front”
by
launching
additional
DDoS
attacks
against
the
websites
for
Switzerland’s
police
force
and
justice
ministry.
NoName
added
that
it
will
continue
to
defend
Russia
in
this
manner.
Learn
more
about
DDoS
attacks
by
reading
Cyber
Security
Hub’s
ultimate
guide
to
DDoS
attacks
here.
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