An alliance of pro-Russian and pro-Palestinian hackers is reportedly launching weekly cyberattacks against the UK’s state agencies, armed forces, infrastructure operators, councils and security services, including the MI6 website.
The simultaneous attacks targeting the agencies’ websites were carried out last month, hacker Mr Hamza claimed on the Holy League coalition’s Telegram Channel.
‘Our message is clear: this is just a warning … and worse is yet to come,’ the pro-Palestine hacker, who is believed to be based in Morocco, posted
The Holy League was created last summer by Abu Omar, a cybercriminal and leader of the Cyber Islamic Resistance.
The report comes after the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) issued a warning about the ‘stark increase’ in threats from state-aligned hacktivists looking to target Britain’s critical infrastructure systems.
According to analysts, Britain has become a bigger target after having taken a more prominent leadership role in support of Ukrainian troops.
The Holy League coalition is comprised of roughly 90 ‘hacktivist’ groups who have vowed to ‘wage cyberwar’ against Ukraine, Israel and their allies.
The coalition reportedly includes hackers trained by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and groups who work alongside Russian intelligence.
The majority of attacks are rudimentary distributed denial of service (DDoS) strikes that overwhelm a website or online server with traffic to make it inaccessible.
Experts note that DDoS attacks are relatively ‘low impact’, typically lasting just a few minutes, but can cause significant disruption to a website’s services and interfere with its defences, making it easier to hack into the site.
National Highways, the North East Combined Authority and several local councils were attacked in January. The alliance also launched a wave of attacks targeting the UK in December last year as retaliation for Ukraine’s use of British Storm Shadow missiles.
A UK Government spokesperson said in a statement to The Times that it does not ‘routinely comment on cyberactivity claimed by online groups’.
Cyber exposures are evolving and it is important that businesses review their insurances, for suitability, using a specialist broker. To discuss this further with a broker at W Denis, please make arrangements with Daniel Moss at [email protected] or on 0044 (0)113 2439812 or contact Mark Dutton at [email protected] or on 0044 (0) 7831 366 469.
