Banks and municipalities affected Russian hackers paralyze numerous Swiss websites

The hacker group NoName057(16) has paralyzed numerous bank and municipal websites.

The websites of several Swiss banks and municipalities were unavailable on Tuesday. The pro-Russian hacker group NoName057(16), which has claimed responsibility for the attacks, is responsible.

The group explained that it was "testing the resilience of the Swiss internet infrastructure". Among those affected were the Zurich and Vaud Cantonal Banks as well as the municipalities of Lucerne, Adligenswil LU, Kriens LU and Ebikon LU.

A DDoS attack, or distributed denial of service, is a cyber attack in which a website or network is overloaded by a flood of requests. This results in regular users no longer having access. Such attacks have been a problem for Swiss banks and authorities for months.

NoName057(16) has been active since 2022 and specializes in cyberattacks against European countries. The group primarily uses DDoS attacks to paralyze government websites and critical infrastructure.

Their attacks are often politically motivated, as they want to punish Western countries for their support of Ukraine in the war. The group regularly publishes its letters of confession on platforms such as Telegram and X.

The hacker group operates as a loose network whose members remain anonymous. Their attacks are directed against countries that they perceive as unfriendly towards Russia. In addition to Switzerland, these include Germany, Poland and the Baltic states.