Copenhagen: The websites of several Danish political parties were targeted on Monday in a cyberattack claimed by pro-Russians hackers on the eve of local and regional elections.
The sites of the Conservatives and the Red-Green Alliance were briefly unavailable on Monday morning, an AFP journalist noted.
The Copenhagen Post, an online newspaper covering Danish news in English, was also affected.
“Dear readers, our website is currently down and flashing a ‘502 – Bad Gateway’ error message,” it wrote on Instagram.
“We have been informed by the Danish Defence Intelligence Service that the likely cause is a DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attack, with our coverage of the November 18 local elections making us a target.”
DDoS attacks halt access to a website by overloading its servers with traffic.
Pro-Russian hacker group NoName057(16) said on social media it was targeting the sites of several Danish political parties and public broadcaster DR.
But DR told AFP: “No incidents have been registered that have affected DR’s ability to operate normally.”
Last week, the same group claimed responsibility for cyberattacks on several Danish municipalities, government websites and a defence company.
In a risk analysis ahead of the local elections, Denmark’s intelligence service said in early November there was a high likelihood of cyberattacks.
“It is likely that groups of pro-Russian hackers will carry out DDoS attacks against websites linked to the elections,” it said.
The military intelligence service meanwhile told AFP that the situation was being followed closely by the country’s Civil Protection Agency, which did not immediately respond to AFP’s request for comment.
