"FBI: Hacktivist DDoS Attacks Had Minor Impact on Critical Orgs"

According to the FBI, Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attacks orchestrated by hacktivist groups have a minor impact on the services they target. As explained by the law enforcement agency in a private industry notification recently issued, this occurs because they target public-facing infrastructure such as websites rather than actual services, resulting in limited disruption. The FBI is aware of pro-Russian hacktivist groups using DDoS attacks to target critical infrastructure companies, which coincides with Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the agency said. These attacks are typically opportunistic and have little operational impact on victims. However, hacktivists frequently 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 service disruption. These groups commonly target high-profile or critical infrastructure organizations, such as financial institutions, emergency services, airports, government, health, and medical facilities. The hacktivists hope to increase their credibility by claiming greater impact or disruption than what actually occurred. In one recent example, the pro-Russian hacktivist group KillNet claimed responsibility for an attack on the websites of several major airports across the US. The DDoS attacks overwhelmed the servers that hosted these sites, making it impossible for travelers to book airport services or get flight updates. Although these DDoS attacks had no effect on flights, they did have a negative impact on a critical economic sector, causing delays in associated services. This article continues to discuss the FBI's private industry notification on the impact of hacktivist DDoS attacks. 

Bleeping Computer reports "FBI: Hacktivist DDoS Attacks Had Minor Impact on Critical Orgs"