Pro-Russia cyber attack targets Netherlands parties on first day of European elections News
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Pro-Russia cyber attack targets Netherlands parties on first day of European elections

Several Dutch political parties reported a cyber attack on their websites Thursday, on the first day of the European Parliament elections. Three parties were specifically targeted in an attack claimed by a pro-Russian hacker collective.

Early on Thursday morning, several party websites were inaccessible to Dutch voters. The Christian Democratic Party (CDA) announced the cyber attack on X (formerly Twitter), condemning it as an “attack on free, democratic elections.” The websites of the Freedom Party (PVV), led by Dutch election winner Geert Wilders, and Forum for Democracy (FvD) were also targeted. FvD’s leader Thierry Baudet reassured voters on X, stating that the whole team was ‘working overtime to repeal the attack’. The attack in question was a denial-of-service (DDoS) attack, intended to make the parties’ websites temporarily unavailable to Dutch voters.

The timing of the attack was not coincidental, occurring on the first day of the European elections, held from June 6 to 9. The Netherlands was the first EU member state to vote in the transnational election, closely watched globally as it determines the European Parliament’s composition for the next five years. The attack has been claimed and confirmed by the pro-Russia group HackNeT, who shared post on the messaging app Telegram from the People’s CyberArmy. HackNeT regularly targets countries in conflict with Russia. On Telegram, the group said they would continue such attacks; however, no further attacks have been reported.

HackNeT also targeted the European Court of Auditors’ website, as confirmed in a statement to Euronews. All DDoS attacks have since been resolved, and the websites are operational again.

Cyber attacks during elections are not a new phenomenon. Last week, Germany’s Christian Democratic Party (CDU) was targeted by Russian hackers in what the Ministry of Interior described as a “serious” attack. Additionally, there has been a noticeable increase in disinformation during the election campaigns.

The European Parliament issued a press release addressing these concerns, emphasizing the importance of defending European democracy and elections against disinformation and manipulation. The press release acknowledged recent attempts to mislead European voters through the spread of false information and polarization of controversial topics. The European Digital Media Observatory has noted a connection between the rise in disinformation campaigns and an estimated increase in voter turnout during the elections. The projected turnout is 68 percent, which is almost 10 percent higher than in 2019. This suggests that efforts to undermine the electoral process are occurring alongside greater voter engagement.

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