Last week’s DDoS attacks only affected websites, internal systems were not attacked, said spokesmen for the Port of Rotterdam Authority and Groningen Seaports after the RTL News report. According to the Port of Rotterdam, the hackers did not cause any damage. They did not break into systems, steal or block anything they knew, or demand a ransom to stop the attack.
“Has been going on for years”
So far, according to Cobelens, the attacks have had no major negative effects. But they keep trying. Of course it’s extremely annoying for the Port of Rotterdam and the companies if you lose everything and can’t use the websites anymore. We have to do our best to keep them out,” she says.
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The Port of Rotterdam cannot say anything about the perpetrators. According to RTL Nieuws, the DDoS attack was the work of the NoName05716 group, a relatively unknown group of “hacktivists” who regularly carry out digital attacks against Russia’s opponents. In May, for example, they shut down the judiciary and senate sites during a visit by Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelensky to the Netherlands. DDoS attacks flood sites with traffic, causing them to falter and become inaccessible. Such attacks are easy enough to carry out.
Hacktivists active in the Netherlands
The Ministry of Justice and Security’s National Cyber Security Center (NCSC) confirms the attacks. ‘Since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, we have seen more and more hacktivist groups active in the Netherlands. War is certainly a motive. We previously sent a security warning. This attack fits almost one-on-one,” says a spokeswoman. ‘The perpetrators are concerned with showing that they are doing it, they want to create social unrest. They focus on the organizations with which they have a social impact. It has happened now and will happen more often ».