Elections kick-off sees wave of DDoS attacks hitting European governments

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Hacktivists use their favourite tool against political rivals

European Union
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Members of the European Union are currently taking part in elections to the European Parliament, presenting a prime opportunity for hacktivists to perform Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks against political parties across the spectrum.

At time of writing, 8 of the 27 EU members have completed counting their votes, with the preliminary results and exit polls showing gains for right-wing parties.

Russia attacks shared interests

The HackNeT group took responsibility for attacks against two political parties in the Netherlands, the PVV (Party for Freedom) and FvD (Forum for Democracy), both of which have voiced euro-skepticism, anti-NATO sentiment and opposition against the sanctions placed on Russia following its invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Cloudflare shared statistics on the impacts of the DDoS attacks, with the first attacks topping out at 115 million requests per hour, with a sustained 73,000 requests per second over four hours. The second attack only reached 44 million requests per hour, with a 53,000 request per second peak.

The European Parliament elections took place across the EU through June 6 to June 9, with French President Emmanuel Macron calling a snap election in response to the gains made by far right parties. 

As the results of the elections continue to roll in, the euro has seen a dip in value compared to the dollar and the pound, with European stock markets also taking a hit due to the uncertainty surrounding the French election, and the possibility that other countries may also call snap elections.

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Benedict Collins
Benedict Collins
Senior Writer, Security

Benedict has been with TechRadar Pro for over two years, and has specialized in writing about cybersecurity, threat intelligence, and B2B security solutions. His coverage explores the critical areas of national security, including state-sponsored threat actors, APT groups, critical infrastructure, and social engineering.

Benedict holds an MA (Distinction) in Security, Intelligence, and Diplomacy from the Centre for Security and Intelligence Studies at the University of Buckingham, providing him with a strong academic foundation for his reporting on geopolitics, threat intelligence, and cyber-warfare.

Prior to his postgraduate studies, Benedict earned a BA in Politics with Journalism, providing him with the skills to translate complex political and security issues into comprehensible copy.