Pro-Russian attack paralyzes the Ministry’s website during EU election
On June 9, the day of the EU election, the Ministry of Interior and Health’s website with election information was temporarily paralyzed by a denial-of-service attack. The attack, believed to be orchestrated by pro-Russian activists, caused the website valg.im.dk to be unavailable for an hour. This information comes from a report on the EU election, which assesses the course of the election.
According to the Center for Cyber Security, the purpose of the attack was to overload the website, a so-called DDoS attack. Although no election processes were affected, the Ministry of Interior and Health acknowledged the disruption at 11 o’clock, and by 12 o’clock the site was once again accessible. The report points out that several countries experienced cyber attacks during the election process. The targets of these attacks included websites within the transportation sector, political parties, as well as national and European authorities’ websites.
Prior to the EU election on June 4, the threat level for destructive cyber attacks was raised from low to medium. At a press conference, Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen and Thomas Flarup, head of the Center for Cyber Security, explained that there is a willingness to take risks from Russia. They warned that attacks that could potentially affect infrastructure and supplies are a real threat. Therefore, Danes have been advised to prepare to be self-sufficient for three days with food and water in case the systems were to go down.
However, Troels Lund Poulsen emphasized that the risk of such a scenario is still assessed as low.