The DDoS attack (where computer networks are overwhelmed with internet traffic) was carried out ahead of Thursday’s scheduled video address to the Swiss Parliament by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. It also coincided with Russia Day.

The Swiss National Cyber ​​Security Center (NCSC) said hacker group NoName claimed responsibility for the attack.

“This group was also involved in the attack on parliament.ch which was revealed last week,” the cybersecurity center said in a statement. “The NCSC, together with the relevant administrative units, analyzes the attack and determines the appropriate measures.”

Swiss authorities say the attack rendered “various websites of the federal administration and confederation-related companies” unavailable. However, the main Swiss government portal, www.admin.ch, remained operational.

Federal administration specialists quickly noticed the DDoS attack and “took steps to restore the availability of websites and applications as soon as possible”.

The NCSC does not link the current attack to Zelensky’s forthcoming speech, but reports that the same hacker group was responsible for last week’s attack on the Swiss parliament website.

In a post on Telegram, the NoName group said it launched an attack on the parliament’s website last week to “thank the Swiss Russophobes” for approving a new EU sanctions package against Moscow.

The hackers vowed to continue to protect Russian interests on the “information front” and said they had disabled the Swiss justice ministry and police websites.

Last week, the upper house of the Swiss parliament approved an amendment that could theoretically allow the re-export of Swiss arms to Ukraine.

Attack and Lithuania

Antivirus software maker Avast reports that the NoName hacker group is carrying out politically motivated attacks and “hitting pro-Ukrainian companies and organizations in Ukraine and neighboring countries such as Estonia, Lithuania, Norway and Ukraine.” Poland”.

It only performs DDoS attacks.

According to Avast, the same group tried, among other things, to disrupt the work of Lithuanian transport companies after Lithuania banned the transit of goods to Kaliningrad.

Media also report that they launched an attack on London City Airport’s website in late May.

Additionally, disruptions during a visit by Ukrainian Prime Minister Denis Shmyhal rendered Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s website temporarily unavailable.

In May, the group also attacked the website of the French Senate in what it said was retaliation for its support for Ukraine.

According to Avast, NoName infects computers around the world with the Bobik virus and then uses them as attack bots.

Other cases

As in other countries, cyberattacks against companies, governments and even universities are increasing in Switzerland.

Last week, the country’s government warned it feared a possible data theft following an attack on tech company Xplain, which supplies software to several agencies.

Xplain’s customers include the Swiss Army and Customs Service.

The government has said it does not believe Xplain’s systems have direct access to federal computer systems.

Xplain itself blamed the attack on the Play ransomware group, which is also responsible for a recent attack on two major Swiss media outlets.

Adapted from the BBC.