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Source: 20 Minutes
Date: January 21, 2025
On Tuesday, websites of Swiss municipalities and banks are not available. There is obviously a pro-Russian hacker group.
--Translated from German to English
A Russian hacker group has once again attacked Swiss websites.
The Zurich and Vaud cantonal banks as well as several municipalities are affected.
The group NoName057(16) is committed to the DDoS attacks on Platform X.
The attacks are politically motivated and are directed against countries that support Ukraine.
For months, websites of Swiss banks and authorities have been targeting so-called DDoS attacks. On Tuesday, Zürcher Kantonalbank again hit it, whose website is not available. The Vaud cantonal bank is also affected.
On platform X, the pro-Russian hacker group NoName057(16) professed the attacks. "We continue to test the resilience of the Swiss Internet infrastructure," writes the group in a article in which it also lists other websites concerned. The goals this time included several municipalities, including Lucerne, Adligenswil, Kriens and Ebikon.
Websites paralysed by mass requests
A Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack is a targeted cyber attack in which a website, server or network is overloaded by mass requests, so that regular users no longer have access. In such attacks, no data flows off.
Hacker group active since 2022
The hacker group NoName057(16) has been presenting cyber attacks on European countries and institutions since 2022. It primarily uses DDoS attacks to paralyse the websites of public authorities, companies and critical infrastructure. The group often justifies its attacks politically and claim to want to punish Western countries for their support of Ukraine in the war. She regularly publishes her activities and confessing on platforms such as Telegram and X. NoName057(16) usually acts in the form of a loose network whose members remain anonymous. Their attacks are targeted against states that they perceive as "unfriendly" against Russia, including Germany, Poland and the Baltic states – and Switzerland.