Russian Hacking Group Targets Dutch Political Party Websites During European Election Voting

Dutch media reported on June 6 that three websites belonging to Dutch political parties were targeted in a cyberattack by a Russian hacking group as the Netherlands commenced voting for the European elections.

The Russian hacking group, Hacknet, claimed responsibility for the distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack in a post on Telegram, stating, “We continue to attack the websites of the Netherlands and its parties.”

As a result of the attack, the websites of the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA), as well as the far-right Partij voor de Vrijheid (PVV) and Forum voor Democratie (FvD), were temporarily inaccessible.

“On Election Day, we consider this an attack on free, democratic elections. We are reporting this to the relevant authorities,” CDA wrote on X.

The Netherlands kicked off voting for the European elections on June 6, becoming the first among the 27 EU member states to do so. Results are expected to be announced on June 9, after citizens in other EU countries have cast their votes.

On June 6, it’s been reported that a cyberattack attributed to the Russian cyber-crime group Qilin has disrupted operations at two major London NHS trusts, causing significant disruptions to patient care.