Government websites targeted in DDoS attacks
A number of Irish public service websites have been targeted over the last 24 hours in a wave of distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks.
Coming on the back of other high profile attacks against Lottery.ie and Boards.ie, both CSO and Oireachtas confirmed via Twitter that services were affected.
A spokesperson for the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform confirmed that government infrastructure was being targeted.
“A number of Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks are currently targeting Government Infrastructure. These attacks have resulted in periodic disruption that has resulted in a number of Government websites becoming unavailable to the public. We have implemented our contingency plans which are designed to minimise this disruption. As with all DDoS attacks it is not possible to identify the exact source of the attack,” said a statement.
The Central Statistics Office was also affected, as confirmed by a Twitter posting:
Due to technical issues with Government networks, our website and email are currently unavailable. Apologies for any inconvenience.
— CSO Statistics (@CSOIreland) January 22, 2016
The OireachtasNews account also posted:
We are experiencing some issues with the Oireachtas website at the moment, we hope to have the situation resolved as soon as possible.
— Oireachtas News (@OireachtasNews) January 22, 2016
It is not yet clear where the attacks originate from, nor their motives. In such cases, where state services are targeted, it is often due to hacktivists with an axe to grind.
The OireachtasNews account has most recently posted to say that the issues are resolved and that it is back up and running.
Most of the other services affected now to seem to have been restored.
Technical issues with Government Networks that affected our websites are now resolved. Oireachtas.ie is back up and running #seeforyourself
— Oireachtas News (@OireachtasNews) January 22, 2016
It may be no coincidence that An Taoiseach Enda Kenny was prominent at Davos Economic Forum yesterday, being grilled by economist Joseph Stiglitz.
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