Security News > 2022 > November > FBI: Hacktivist DDoS attacks had minor impact on critical orgs

The Federal Bureau of Investigation said on Friday that distributed denial-of-service attacks coordinated by hacktivist groups have a minor impact on the services they target.

"Coinciding with the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the FBI is aware of Pro-Russian hacktivist groups employing DDoS attacks to target critical infrastructure companies with limited success," the agency said.

"These attacks are generally opportunistic in nature and, with DDoS mitigation steps, have minimal operational impact on victims; however, hacktivists will often publicize and exaggerate the severity of the attacks on social media."

"As a result, the psychological impact of DDoS attacks is often greater than the disruption of service."

In one recent example of such an incident, the pro-Russian hacktivist group KillNet claimed an attack against the websites of several major airports across the U.S. The DDoS attacks overwhelmed the servers hosting these sites, making it impossible for travelers to book airport services or get updates about their scheduled flights.

While these DDoS attacks had no impact on flights, they still had an adverse effect on a crucial economic sector, delaying associated services.

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