Several Federal Administration websites disrupted temporarily by DDoS attack
Bern, 17.01.2024 - A DDoS attack disrupted temporarily access to a number of websites today, including some belonging to the Federal Administration. The Russian-linked hacker group ‘NoName’ claimed responsibility for the attack, citing Ukrainian President Zelenskyy's attendance at the WEF Annual Meeting. The cyberattack was promptly detected and the Federal Administration's specialists took the necessary action to restore access to the websites as quickly as possible. An attack of this kind had been expected, and appropriate security measures were in place. DDoS attacks are aimed at making websites unavailable. They do not result in any data being lost or compromised.
Several websites run by the Federal Administration were temporarily unavailable to-day, Wednesday 17 January, as a result of a DDoS attack. A DDoS attack occurs when a high volume of requests are sent in order to overload online services. The websites affected included those of the federal departments and a number of federal offices. The Swiss government portal www.admin.ch is still operational.
Responsibility for the attack has once again been claimed by the hacker group ‘NoName’, which previously targeted the Federal Administration in June 2023. The presumed pro-Russian group cited Ukrainian President Zelenskyy’s attendance at the WEF Annual Meeting in Davos as the reason for the DDoS attack.
The NCSC collaborates with the administrative units concerned to analyse the risk of such attacks and provides support in implementing the appropriate measures. As an attack had been expected in the run-up to the visit, the NCSC warned the operators of critical infrastructures of this kind of attack on 10 January and called on them to take the necessary precautions. The Federal Administration had therefore adopted the ap-propriate security arrangements. The NCSC also liaises closely with national and in-ternational partners and with the operators of critical infrastructures.
Hackers generally use such attacks on website availability as a means of gaining me-dia attention for their cause. They do this by flooding a website with a massive volume of requests so as to overload it and make it unavailable for a period of time. No data is lost or compromised in a DDoS attack.
Address for enquiries
Communication NCSC
+41 58 465 53 56
media@ncsc.admin.ch
Publisher
National Cyber Security Centre
https://www.ncsc.admin.ch/ncsc/en/home.html
General Secretariat DDPS
https://www.vbs.admin.ch/
