Pro-Russian hackers target Belgian telecom websites in DDoS attack
A DDoS cyberattack briefly disrupted the websites of Belgian telecom operators Proximus and Scarlet on Wednesday morning. The pro-Russian hacker group NoName057 claimed responsibility for the attack via Telegram. Ghent University Hospital was also hit by a DDoS attack around the same time.
Proximus spokesman Fabrice Gansbeke confirmed that technicians detected unusual traffic around 7.20 a.m. and took immediate countermeasures. "From 7.30, we saw a sharp increase in traffic. The impact was very limited: our systems held up," he said.
In a DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attack, hackers flood a website with massive amounts of traffic, overwhelming its servers and making it temporarily inaccessible. Such attacks do not compromise user data.
Pro-Russian group
At 8.53 a.m., NoName057 posted a message on Telegram boasting of attacks against the websites of Scarlet, Proximus and an internal Telenet portal. However, Telenet spokesman Stefan Coenjaerts denied that claim. "Our systems were not hacked and no websites went offline," he said.
The hackers cited comments by Defence minister Theo Francken in a recent interview with Humo magazine, where he said NATO would “flatten” Moscow if Russia attacked Brussels. “We advise the Belgian minister not to throw such statements around,” the group wrote.
It is not the first time NoName057 targets Belgium. Last year, right before the October elections, the pro-Russian hackers hit Belgian websites for four consecutive days. In March, they again took down government websites.
Ghent University Hospital also hit
Around the same time, Ghent University Hospital (UZ Gent) was also inconvenienced by a DDoS attack. The disruption caused slower communication with a number of external systems, resulting in some information being temporarily unavailable or delayed. It is not yet clear whether both attacks were carried out by the same group.
Within the hospital itself, all ICT applications continued to function normally, limiting the impact on patient care. Treatments and interventions went ahead as planned, although some consultations were slightly delayed. The hospital confirmed that by around 11 a.m., communication with external systems had been fully restored.
Other Belgian targets were also hit by a cyberattack, including industrial printer manufacturer CP Bourg in Wavre and the municipality of Comines-Warneton in Hainaut province.
© BELGA PHOTO BENOIT DOPPAGNE
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