The Kursk region of Russia was hit with a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack on Thursday, coinciding with a counter-incursion by Ukrainian forces.
Regional officials confirmed the “massive” cyberattack in a statement, with state media reporting that government and business websites, as well as key infrastructure services, were temporarily disrupted.
Internet monitoring service NetBlocks corroborated the reports, stating that their data showed “sporadic disruptions to internet connectivity in and around Kursk,” suggesting DDoS attacks targeting local infrastructure were likely responsible.
Russia’s digital ministry revealed that online services in Kursk were bombarded with over 100,000 junk requests per second at the peak of the attack. While significant, this figure pales in comparison to major DDoS incidents that can generate millions of requests per second.
The ministry claimed that the IP addresses linked to the attack were primarily registered in Germany and the UK. However, DDoS traffic can be easily routed through multiple servers to obscure the true origin point of the attack.
Despite the disruption, the ministry maintained that the attack had been successfully repelled.
“The attackers’ goal was to disrupt the provision of socially significant services,” the ministry stated. “However, the hackers failed to damage the e-government infrastructure and gain access to user data. All information is reliably protected, and attacks were quickly repelled.”
As of writing, no individual or group has claimed responsibility for the attack. Prominent Ukrainian hacktivist groups and military intelligence services have remained silent.
(Photo by Dmitry Burdakov)
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