THE HAGUE, Netherlands — Pro-Russian hackers have targeted several municipalities and organizations connected to an upcoming NATO summit in the Netherlands with a coordinated series of denial-of-service attacks, the Dutch government revealed on Monday.
The National Cybersecurity Center issued a statement indicating that these cyber-attacks have been claimed by a pro-Russian hacker group known as NoName057(16). The center noted that the motive behind these attacks appears to be pro-Russian in nature, though no further details were provided.
Currently, the center is investigating these incidents, where websites are flooded with data to the point of being overwhelmed and taken offline. Authorities are working closely with both national and international partners to address the situation.
Raoul Rozestraten, spokesperson for the municipality of The Hague, which is the host city for the NATO summit scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday, shared that the cyber-attacks impacted multiple municipalities across the country. “We’ve noticed increased traffic directed at some of our service providers’ websites,” he stated. “At the moment, all systems in The Hague are functioning as expected.”
In anticipation of the summit, the government has initiated a large-scale security operation called “Orange Shield” to protect against potential threats.