The site of the National Assembly blocked by an attack by pro-Russian hackers

The website of the French National Assembly has been blocked since Monday morning March 27 by an attack claimed by the group of pro-Russian hackers NoName, in response to France’s support for Ukraine, according to experts from the Thales group.

The Assembly site, which links to a fixed page where it is indicated “currently under maintenance”, is the target of a “denial of service” attack (saturation of requests, editor’s note) carried out by the collective of pro-Russian hackers NoName057.

Attack on the Senate website

He claimed this attack on his Telegram channel, in response to France’s support for Ukraine, said Ivan Fontarensky, technical director of cyber defense at Thales.

“We have decided to repeat our recent trip to France, where the protests against Macron, who has decided not to care about the French and continues to serve the Ukrainian neo-Nazis, are not calming down,” the group writes on Telegram. NoName also claims an attack against the site of the Senate, for the moment without visible effect.

France, a regular target of hackers

NoName is one of some 80 pro-Russian hacker collectives targeting institutions in countries that support Ukraine, including Western European countries, explained Nicolas Quintin, team leader of Thales threat analysis, which brings together around fifty experts worldwide.

France, one of their regular targets, has seen several such attacks recently. Last week, they blocked the Aéroports de Paris site and targeted the DGSI site. These two waves of attacks were claimed by another group of pro-Russian hackers, said Thales, which follows their communications.

NoName, established in March 2022, which communicates in Russian and English, conducts denial of service attacks, basic cyberattacks.

These pro-Russian collectives have flourished since Russia invaded Ukraine. They act without seeking a ransom, unlike traditional hackers. Inexpensive denial of service attacks usually only result in temporary site blockages. But they can handicap companies if they are linked to their sales or production system.

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