A cyber attack hit the European Parliament on Wednesday afternoon. The pro-Russian hacker group Killnet claims to be behind it, says parliament speaker Roberta Metsola. She links it to parliament’s decision earlier in the day to label Russia a sponsor of terrorism.
It is an ‘advanced cyber attack’, Metsola tweets. Parliament’s website went offline. Servers are said to have been flooded with internet traffic, a weapon Killnet has used before.
‘Our ICT experts defend themselves against it and protect the systems,’ says Metsola. She suggests that the attack is related to a proposal that the European Parliament had just passed. Around noon, parliament voted to designate Russia as a sponsor of terrorism from now on, although this has mainly symbolic value for the time being.
As far as is known, other EU institutions have not been affected, reports the European Commission, which ‘obviously condemns’ the cyber attack. The nuisance that lasted for hours on Wednesday affected MEPs and their staff, who gather in Strasbourg for, among other things, the monthly votes. For example, they did not have access to necessary documents.
With the attack, Russia ironically proves “that it is indeed a sponsor state of terrorism,” said Dutch MEP Bert-Jan Ruissen (SGP). “This is an outrageous attack on our democracy.”
