Cyber Attack On Kremlin Website
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Russian president’s official website was targeted by a massive hacker attack during country-wide local elections, but the Kremlin’s cyber defenses managed to cope with the situation, spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
“Hackers carried out a very powerful attack on the president’s site, but the [cyber] defense system managed to thwart it,” Peskov told reporters in Moscow. He has not disclosed any information about the source of the attack claiming that he had no details, although he noted that he was “sure that [cyber-security] specialists know who is behind this attack.“
Peskov also said that the attack on the Kremlin site was carried out simultaneously with another attack that reportedly targeted the website of the Russian Electoral Commission. Both of the attacks were made on national Election Day, when people region-wide went to polling station to elect local authorities.
According to Peskov, the hacking attack on the Kremlin site occurred between 5:00am and 10:00am (2:00am-7:00am GMT) on Sunday. Prior to Peskov’s media briefing, the head of the Russian Electoral Commission, Vladimir Churov also told the Russian media that, on Sunday, the commission’s website came under a cyber-attack carried out by an US-based company.
“Yesterday someone attempted to hack our website and alter the data there making 50,000 requests per minute. They failed and we have already established the culprit – it’s a company based in San Francisco,” Churov told reporters adding that the documented proof of the attack would be prepared before the end of the week.
The country has been cultivating some of the world’s most proficient hackers and advanced cyber infrastructure in recent years. The U.S. has also fallen victim to Russian cyberattacks; in August, it was reported that Russian hackers penetrated email servers belonging to the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff.
