The European Investment Bank (EIB) has fallen victim to a cyber attack, suspected to be orchestrated by Russian hackers, resulting in the impairment of certain EIB websites. An EIB spokesperson has confirmed the ongoing cyber attack and its impact on website availability.

The cyber attack on the European Investment Bank (EIB) comes in the wake of recent threats by Russian-speaking hackers to target Western financial institutions due to their support for Ukraine.

Last week, a group identifying themselves as the Killnet gang announced on Telegram their intention to, “rebuff the madmen according to the formula ‘no money – no weapons – no Kyiv regime’.”

The Killnet gang has gained notoriety for its expertise in conducting "distributed denial of service" (DDoS) attacks, which overwhelm websites by flooding them with excessive traffic, causing them to become inaccessible.

In response to the cyber attack, an EIB spokesperson stated that the bank is actively addressing the situation. The spokesperson further emphasized, "While various groups have claimed responsibility for the incident, we will refrain from speculating at this time."

As the development bank of the European Union, the EIB is owned by its member states and holds over €500bn on its balance sheet.

Cybersecurity experts suggest that the Killnet gang believed to be a collective of Russian hackers, may have potential connections to the authorities in their country.

Earlier this year, the Killnet gang took credit online for conducting a series of DDoS attacks targeting NATO and the US Air Force's Strategic Air Command. These organizations experienced website outages as a result.

However, it is worth noting that such attacks typically do not impact critical infrastructure, as websites are typically separate from essential operational systems.

At the time of Killnet’s February attacks, Muhammad Yahya Patel, a security engineer from Check Point Software said, “This has been their MO for some time, and I am sure we haven’t seen the last of these attempts.

“It would be wise for all businesses, but in particular those with public-facing services, to strengthen their defences to ensure they remain operational.”

The majority of high-profile cybercrime incidents targeting the West are attributed to Russia, as authorities in the country often overlook online criminal activities directed beyond its borders. This unofficial tolerance has led to the inclusion of code in malicious software that prevents it from disrupting computers predominantly using the Russian language.

Image source: The Telegraph