Czech Ministry of Interior website crippled due to cyberattacks

Prague, April 27 (ČTK) - The Czech Interior Ministry websites, including the police and fire department sites, have been inaccessible since this morning due to a cyberattack, ministry spokeswoman Klara Dlubalova told ČTK today.

The DDoS (distributed denial-of-service) attack saw hackers try to flood the network with an excessive volume of data in an attempt to cripple it.

The websites of other state offices in the Czech Republic came under similar cyberattacks last week.

The pro-Russian hacker group Killnet claimed responsibility for the attacks today, according to ČTK sources. The group was also behind the attacks from last week.

"No data was leaked. We are working for the sites of the ministry, police, and fire department to start working as soon as possible," said Dlubalova of today's attack.

Last Wednesday and Thursday, several state websites were attacked, including that of the government, the National Agency for Cyber and Information Security (NUKIB), and the civil service portal operated by the Interior Ministry.

Cyberattacks have also targeted some airport systems and the national Czech Railways carrier. No citizen data was leaked, the Interior Ministry said.

Interior Minister Vít Rakušan told the media then that Russian hackers had caused the attacks. The pro-Russian hacker group Killnet claimed responsibility for them.

The group writes on its website today that the Czech media would see the same attacks if they did not stop calling Killnet a pro-Kremlin group.

The NUKIB has repeatedly warned of the increased risk of cyber espionage and attacks in connection with Russia's continuing military aggression against Ukraine. The Czech Republic supports Ukraine in the war with Russia by supplying arms among other modes of support.

Russia is threatening the countries that support Ukraine with retaliation.

The NUKIB is calling on organizations to be aware of the most common attacks and to update their information systems to prevent the abuse of their vulnerabilities.