Websites of President, Mtavari TV, Formula TV, and SovLab Allegedly Hit by Cyberattacks
On January 25 and 26, the websites of the opposition-oriented Mtavari and Formula TVs, as well as the Georgian President’s website, were reportedly cyber-attacked. Earlier on January 23, the Soviet Past Research Laboratory- SovLab, a civil society organization that studies Georgia’s Soviet past, also reported a “coordinated” cyber attack from Russia.
According to the RFE/RL-Georgian Service upon entering the President’s website, a message appeared that read “Hacked by COZY BEAR, Glory to Russia.” The caption has been removed from the President’s website; however, it remains inoperable as of 12:30 p.m., January 26, 2024. The Russian hacker group “Cozy Bear” is believed to be linked to Russian intelligence.
Earlier on January 25, Mtavari TV reported that its website had been cyberattacked and that some of the station’s data had been deleted.
A similar cyberattack was reported by Formula TV on January 26, noting that the attack had been ongoing for several hours, resulting in the shutdown of the website.
On January 23, SovLab reported that its web resources have been hit by hackers.The statement by the organization said: “During the past few weeks, the Georgian Dream has been orchestrating a propaganda campaign against the Soviet Past Research Laboratory. Simultaneously, the organization’s web resources have become the target of a coordinated attack from Russia.”
“The server hosting SovLab’s public archive website (archive.ge) is the focal point of DDoS attacks, with the objective of disrupting its proper functioning,” SovLab said, adding that “over the past several days, the intensity of the attacks has been growing exponentially, especially from Russia. The daily number of users attempting to visit the website exceeds 700,000.”
A DDoS (distributed denial of service) attack is a malicious attempt to disrupt the normal traffic of the targeted service, network or service by overwhelming it with Internet traffic.
Also Read:
- 23/02/2021 – Interior Ministry, Georgian Dream Report Cyberattack
- 20/10/2020 – U.S. Indicts Russian GRU Officers for Cybercrimes Against Georgia
- 04/09/2020 – Georgian Politicians Reckon Russia behind Cyberattack on Health Ministry, Lugar Center
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