Pro-Russian hackers claimed responsibility for a cyberattack that briefly interrupted access to the U.S. Congress website on the night of June 7th, 2022.
The U.S. Congress had its official website down from around 9 pm E.T on Thursday. The website was later restored to normal the next day.
Slayton April, director of communications of the congress library said in an email that her department used existing measures to address the attack quickly, resulting in minimal downtime. There were no lost or destroyed data as a result of the attack.
Killnet Claims Responsibility
Following the report, a Russian hacking group known as Killnet claimed responsibility for the activity on their Telegram channel. Posted on their channel, a message on Congress.gov overlaid with an image of the U.S. president, Joe Biden, with a puzzled look on his face.
The hackers used a common tactic known as distributed denial of service (DDoS), according to Slayton. Killnet sends numerous unwanted traffic to knock websites offline.
The website, Congress.gov displays information such as bills, hearings, and other deliberations of congress. The DDoS attacks can affect customers’ access to banking websites and they are also unable to make statements and gain publicity.
In addition, the previous attack from Killnet almost had Estonia victimized. It was rumored that Killnet launched cyberattacks on Estonia’s Presidential website. Estonia’s additional security measures were able to thwart the incoming attacks from Killnet.
A few days ago, Killnet also launched an attack on Norway. Cybersecurity analysts said the offensive was a DDoS attack. As with this type of attempt, it blocked users from accessing Norway’s website.
Killnet continues to target countries and they have gained so much attention in recent weeks. Yesterday, Canada reported a massive network outage. Some people claimed that it was cyberattack. Others went on to point accusing fingers at Killnet as the culprit.
