Pro-Russian hackers have been identified as the perpetrators behind the recent DDoS attacks that disrupted the websites of Dutch commercial ports. Groningen Zeehaven's site remained offline

throughout the weekend, while Amsterdam, Rotterdam, and Den Helder experienced several hours of downtime on Tuesday.

DDoS attacks involve overwhelming servers with simultaneous access requests until their capacity is exceeded. Fortunately, the shipping traffic systems, operating on separate servers, remained unaffected.

According to RTL Nieuws, a group of pro-Russian hackers called NoName0157(16) claimed responsibility for the attacks, citing the Netherlands' decision to supply Leopard tanks to Ukraine as the motive.

Tom Hegel, a cybersecurity expert from the US-based company SentinelOne, described the group as a small collective of hackers specializing in disrupting Western websites. Despite their use of amateurish tools, their tactics have proven effective in achieving their goal of taking down websites and gaining attention. The group boasts about its successes on Telegram channels.

Port authorities confirmed that the attacks caused disruptions but did not result in significant damage. A spokesperson for Groningse Zeehaven mentioned that the timing was inconvenient due to a major open day event held on Saturday.

The Port of Rotterdam identified Russia as the source of the attacks, with a majority of the access requests originating from Russian and Serbian internet addresses. While the port considers its website important for public information, it emphasized that it is not solely reliant on the website for its operations.

These cyberattacks serve as a reminder of the ongoing tensions and retaliatory actions taking place in the aftermath of the Netherlands' decision to supply Leopard tanks to Ukraine. Photo by Hardscarf, Wikimedia commons.