For the first time since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, Russian hackers have claimed responsibility for a cyber attack that paralyzed a Canadian bank’s website for several hours last week.
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“To my knowledge, this is the first time since the conflict began that a Canadian banking institution has been attacked by Russian hackers,” Alexis Rapin, a researcher at UQAM’s Observatory of Multidimensional Conflicts, told the Journal.
UQAM
Alexis Rapin, researcher at UQAM’s Observatory of Multidimensional Conflicts.
On the morning of February 26, a group of pro-Russian hackers announced on the Telegram network that they had launched an attack on TD Bank. These hacktivists, who call themselves “We Are Russian Hackers Community” online, immediately boasted about their action.
Screenshot of the Telegram app
Excerpt from the publication in Russian, in which hackers announced that they had taken down the TD Bank website on February 26.
“One of Canada’s largest banks was targeted,” the hackers said in a Russian-language publication.
Screenshot of the Telegram app
Error message
In fact, our representative found that TD Bank’s website was unavailable on mobile phones from 7:30 am to about 2:30 pm last Sunday.
Screenshot of the td.com website
Error message that appeared on TD Bank’s website on February 26th.
“503 – Service Unavailable” displayed their webpage when opened with a mobile phone or electronic tablet. However, the financial institution’s network ran on computers.
Screenshot from td.com
The normal TD Bank website interface.
“Often they post messages claiming attacks, but that’s not always backed up by fact and doesn’t really have consequences,” notes Alexis Rapin, a specialist in cyber defense and information warfare. But this time, mobile sites really weren’t available in Canada.”
A group of pro-Russian hacktivists say they are targeting the target @TD_Bank. Maybe through DDoS? NB: There are many such claims, but much rarer are the cases where real interference is observed. Be continued! https://t.co/9xH86nqLMS
— Alexis Rapin (@alexis_rapin) February 26, 2023
The researcher recalls that two days before this collapse, Canada announced it would give Ukraine $32.5 million to help secure and stabilize its country.
A “DDoS” attack
The Cyberknow group, which uncovers and monitors web hackers around the world, was the first to sound the alarm against TD Bank.
“They target what all pro-Russian hacktivist groups refer to as ‘russophobic’ nations from time to time,” according to Cyberknow Journal.
Accordingly, TD Bank was the victim of a “DDoS attack”, also known as a “denial of service attack”. In this method, hackers flood a website with traffic to make it inaccessible.
your goal? “Support Russia in cyberspace,” Cyberknow replies. Your organization actually warned the public about 98 pro-Russian hacktivist groups last month:
Radio silence at TD Bank
The Journal contacted three PR reps at TD Bank about the issue for over a week, but our questions went unanswered. No confirmation of receipt was sent to us each time.
“These cyberactivists want their 5 minutes of fame and will do more of it, that’s for sure. They are dangerous because they are unpredictable. At that time, they’re doing everything, and it’s disrupting very important commercial or government entities,” notes Steve Waterhouse, cybersecurity specialist.
With kind approval
Steve Waterhouse, Cyber Security Specialist
The expert again urges companies and governments to invest in prevention and prepare for such cyber threats.
“In that case it would be interesting to know why they targeted TD Bank? Has anyone made any trades? Unfortunately, we don’t have an answer for that,” Mr. Waterhouse drops.
Note that several banks in Europe and the United States have fallen victim to Russian hacks in recent months. On March 3, one of the largest Czech banks, ČSOB, was also faced with a cyber attack by Russian criminals.
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