Pro-Kremlin group claims responsibility for cyberattack on EU Parliament

The European Parliament’s website was hit by a cyberattack after it had declared Russia “a state sponsor of terrorism.” The pro-Kremlin group Killnet has since claimed responsibility for the attack.

A number of officials, such as Dita Charanzová, Czech MEP and Parliament vice president responsible for cybersecurity, confirmed the DDoS attack, although assured that the Parliamentary services are well-prepared to handle the incident.

The distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack, in which huge numbers of “bots” attack target computers, hit the Parliament’s website on Wednesday, briefly taking it down.

The Anonymous Russia, part of the pro-Russian hacktivist group Killnet, is allegedly behind the incident, according to an extravagant Telegram message where they call the EU Parliament “sponsors of homosexualism” and EU officials, who cited their private sources.

Killnet commonly opts for DDoS attacks in cyber warfare where they back Russia. As such, they have already struck Lithuania, a NATO member bordering Russia, as a way of intimidating one of the most notorious European opposers of the Kremlin’s aggression in Ukraine.

In August, Killnet targeted the online government services of Estonia, which was named the largest attack since 2007, following its removal of Soviet monuments from public areas.

Additionally, Killnet was behind the DDoS attack on several Italian institutions and ministries, claiming that Italy was “squashed like a mosquito.”

Belgium’s national cybersecurity center confirmed an ongoing investigation with no further details, according to Politico.

The news comes after the European Parliament ruled Russia is a state sponsor of terrorism. Although there is no official legal framework to back up the decision, the Parliament argued that the Kremlin’s strikes on Ukraine’s infrastructure and civilian targets violated international law.

"MEPs also want diplomatic ties with Russia to be reduced, EU contacts with official Russian representatives to be kept to the absolute minimum and Russian state-affiliated institutions in the EU spreading propaganda around the world to be closed and banned," the Parliament's press release reads.