Russian hacker group Killnet launches DDoS on Nato websites

Nato has become the latest organisation to fall victim to the Russian hacktivist group Killnet, who has hit some of western alliance’s  public-facing websites with a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack.

The Killnet operation has meant some of Nato websites, such its Special Operations Headquarters homepage, have faced temporary disruption.

Posting on a closed channel on the encrypted Telegram service, Killnet previously said that it was commencing attacks against the military alliance. According to The Telegraph, it is also soliciting cryptocurrency donations to maintain the attacks.

A Nato spokesperson confirmed that it has briefly come under attack: “Nato cyber experts are actively addressing an incident affecting some Nato websites. Nato deals with cyber incidents on a  regular basis, and takes cyber security very seriously.”

At a press conference ahead of a meeting of defence ministers, Nato secretary general Jens Stoltenberg said that on Sunday 12^th of February it deployed additional protective measures.

“The majority of Nato websites are functioning as normal. Some Nato websites are still experiencing availability issues, but our technical teams are working to restore full access,” he said.

He also confirmed that Nato’s classified networks, which are used to communicate on active missions within Nato, were not attacked.

However, The Telegraph reports that the attackers disrupted contact between Nato and military aircraft providing aid to victims of the Turkish-Syrian earthquake.