NoName targets Ukraine in spate of DDoS attacks before Trump-Zelensky meeting
The NoName hacktivist group targeted almost a dozen Ukrainian government agencies on Monday in the lead-up to today’s meeting between Presidents Trump and Zelensky to discuss a possible end to the war with Russia.
Image by Victor Lauer | Shutterstock
The NoName hacktivist group targeted almost a dozen Ukrainian government agencies on Monday in the lead-up to today’s meeting between Presidents Trump and Zelensky to discuss a possible end to the war with Russia.
The pro-Russian hacktivists posted their handiwork on Telegram about 9:00 a.m. Eastern Time, just hours before the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was set to arrive at the White House.
“It's time to visit Ukraine and find out how things are 😈,” the group posted on its English-version channel.
The group then listed ten victims, along with their check-host reports, to prove its success. It allegedly knocked the targeted websites offline in multiple distributed denial-of-service attacks (DDoS).
The purported municipal victims listed on the Telegram channel included Ukraine’s:
- Committee on energy and housing and communal services
- Committee on national security issues
- Committee on state authority, local self-government
- Committee on legal policy
- Committee on human rights, dectication and reintegration
- Committee on law enforcement
- Committee on transport and infrastructure issues
- Committee on finance, tax and customs
- Center for the provision of administrative services in Kyiv
Also included on the list was the industrial giant Ferrexpo, which is considered one of the leading European producers and suppliers of premium iron ore products, enabling the transition to green steel.
According to the Ferrexpo website, the company is one of the largest industrial companies in Ukraine and an important foundation of the local, regional, and national economy.
“This contribution is more significant in wartime conditions. Since the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Ferrexpo has made a significant contribution to Ukraine's economy worth more than US $2 billion, employing more than 8,000 Ukrainian workers,” it said.
NoName also deployed DDoS attacks on several sensitive targets in Brussels, citing a Sunday meeting between Zelensky and Ursula von der Leyen, the head of the European Commission, which is headquartered in the Belgian capital.
Targets included the nation’s Social Security Bureau and the International Center for Research and Information on Public, Social, and Cooperative Economics.
Von der Leyen was additionally on the list of those leaders scheduled to participate in an expanded meeting with European leaders later in Washington, DC, also on Monday.
The Noname hacktivist group has been operating since at least 2022, aligning its attacks to target the critical infrastructure of nations against Russia since its invasion of Ukraine, often and specifically going after NATO member nations.
According to threat researchers at Radware, NoName057(16) operates using Telegram channels where they claim responsibility for their attacks, mock targets, make threats, and share educational content.
DDoS attacks work by directing high volumes of internet traffic towards targeted servers, flooding the sites and knocking them offline.
Last July, the pro-Russian group unleashed a wave of attacks against Spain after three of its members were arrested by Spanish authorities days earlier.
Spanish police have arrested three people suspected of hacking attacks on behalf of Russian security services
undefined NEXTA (@nexta_tv) July 20, 2024
The detainees are believed to be part of a group of pro-Russian hackers known as NoName057. pic.twitter.com/kLCC96Z4Iw
Although DDoS attacks are often seen as more of a nuisance than causing permanent or lasting disruptions, to put the group's efforts in perspective, a Radware research report found that in the first half of 2023, NoName carried out 1174 attacks in 32 Western nations, in just 176 days.
NoName hacking campaigns in 2023 successfully targeted NATO, Italy’s banking system, several of Europe’s largest ports, and Ukraine’s financial sector.
Other critical infrastructure attacks claimed by NoName i the months after the war began, include those against Poland, Denmark, Lithuania, and the French parliament, as well as nearly a dozen attacks on Switzerland’s financial and aviation sectors.