The European Parliament’s website was the target of a cyberattack on Wednesday, the day the institution passed a resolution recognizing Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism, an official source confirmed.
A source from the European Assembly told Lusa “European Parliament’s website was the target of a cyber-attack”making the institution’s website inaccessible.
This is what the spokesperson for the European Parliament, Jaume Duch, writes on the social network Twitter “the availability of the European Parliament’s website is currently affected by a lot of external network traffic”which guarantees that it is a cybernetic “attack”.
The availability of @Europarl_NL website is currently being affected from the outside due to a lot of external network traffic.
This traffic is related to a Distributed Denial of Service (DDOS) attack.
EP teams are working to resolve this issue as soon as possible.– Jaume Duch (@jduch) November 23, 2022
The institution’s president, Roberta Metsola, accused a group linked to the Russian Presidency (Kremlin) on Twitter of having committed “a sophisticated cyber-attack” and responded by writing “Glory to Ukraine”.
“Parliament is the target of a sophisticated cyber attack. A pro-Kremlin group has claimed responsibility, [mas] our IT experts fight it and protect our systems,” said Roberta Metsola.
“This, after declaring Russia a state sponsor of terrorism,” the official recalled.
And he added: “My answer is ‘Slava Ukraini [Glória à Ucrânia]🇧🇷
The @Europarl_NL undergoes a sophisticated cyber-attack. A pro-Kremlin group has claimed responsibility.
Our IT experts resist and protect our systems.
This after we declared Russia a state sponsor of terrorism.
My answer: #SlavaUkraini
– Roberta Metsola (@EP_President) November 23, 2022
Another source at the European Parliament said, on condition of anonymity, that the computer attack was the “most sophisticated in recent history” against the institution.
Mikulas Peksa, MEP of the European Pirate Party, said that “there are reports that the pro-Russian hacker group Killnet has claimed responsibility for the attack”. “If true, this is a massive attack on European democracy and one that requires further action,” he said.
In recent months, Killnet has claimed attacks against US government websites and taken action against other countries resisting Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
German MEP Rasmus Andresen said he did not yet know if the attack was related to the Russia resolution, but stressed that parliament’s systems “are not sufficiently prepared”. “I hope that today’s events lead us to better protect our data and our democracies, because it certainly won’t be the last time we fall victim to such attacks,” he said. mention.
The announcement comes on the day the European Parliament passed a resolution recognizing Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism, presented by the political group of European Conservatives and Reformists (center right).
MEPs at the plenary session in Strasbourg, France, approved a resolution condemning Moscow’s attacks on Ukraine as “terrorist and war crimes”, particularly targeting civilian targets and infrastructure, the institution said in a statement.
For example, the European Parliament classifies Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism that “uses terrorist methods”, and also calls for the adoption of a ninth package of sanctions against Moscow.
The resolution was adopted by 494 votes in favour, 58 against and 44 abstentions.
The military offensive launched by Russia in Ukraine on February 24 has already led to the flight of more than 13 million people — more than six million internally displaced persons and more than 7.8 million to European countries — according to the latest data of the UN, which classifies this refugee crisis as the worst in Europe since World War II (1939-1945).
The Russian invasion – justified by the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, with the need to “denazify” and demilitarize Ukraine for Russian security – was condemned by the international community at large, which responded by sending weapons to Ukraine and Russia political and economic sanctions.
The UN presented 6,595 dead civilians and 10,189 wounded as confirmed since the start of the war, underlining that these numbers are well below the real ones.
Source: DN
