Enterprise-Grade Identity Verification for AI-Enhanced Workflows
The UK’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has issued a warning about the threat posed by distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks from Russia-linked hacking groups who are reported to be continuing to target British organisations.
The alert from the NCSC, which is part of the UK’s GCHQ intelligence, security, and cyber agency, claims that Russian-aligned hacktivist groups are disrupting UK online services – in particular those connected to local government authorities and critical infrastructure.
The denial-of-service attacks are typically not highly sophisticated, but can still successfully cause disruption to IT systems, and cost organisations a significant amount of time and money as they attempt to respond or recover.
The most obviously visible symptom of a basic denial-of-service attack can be that a website is no longer accessible, as hackers flood it with unwanted traffic, making it impossible for legitimate users to reach the resource. However, such attacks can have numerous other side effects on organisations.
Unlike many cyber attacks, the motivation behind those which the NCSC are warning about, are believed to not be financially motivated – but are instead driven by ideology “over perceived Western support for Ukraine… and they operate outside the direct control of the state.”
The NCSC is encouraging at-risk organisations to review their defences and harden their resilience to attacks, ensuring that they are prepared to respond should they find themselves in the gunsights of a DDoS attack.
According to the alert, the threat has evolved to increasingly target British operational technology (OT) – the hardware and software that monitors and controls the industrial equipment and physical systems commonly used in critical sectors such as manufacturing, transportation, and energy.
As a result, the NCSC encourages all OT owners to follow recommended mitigation advice to harden their cyber defences.
In December 2025, warnings were issued that pro-Russian groups including Cyber Army of Russia Reborn (CARR), Z-Pentest, NoName057(16), and Sector16, were exploiting vulnerable devices to execute attacks against critical infrastructure organisations in the water, food, and energy sectors.
In order to become more resilient against DDoS attacks specifically, your organisation would be wise to:
- Identify the potential points of the network, connectivity, and computing resources that could be overloaded in a targeted attack.
- Work with service providers such as ISPs and content delivery networks to mitigate attacks before they reach your systems.
- Design a service that can rapidly scale its resources if under attack.
- Create a plan that allows for graceful degradation (while maintaining core functionality during attacks), can adapt to changing attack tactics, retaining administrative access during incidents, and having fallback options for essential services.
- Test and monitor defences to know what volume of attack your organisation can handle.
“By overwhelming important websites and online systems, these attacks can prevent people from accessing the essential services they depend on every day,” said Jonathon Ellison, director of National Resilience at the NCSC. “All organisations, especially those identified in today’s alert, are urged to act now by reviewing and implementing the NCSC’s freely available guidance to protect against DoS attacks and other cyber threats.”
About Author
