On the morning of 1 October, the website of the British royal family was targeted by a group of Russian hacktivists known for their support for Vladimir Putin. The cyber attack, which began at around 10 a.m., is believed to have caused the site to malfunction for around two hours
The news broke this morning. According to British media outlet The Mirror, the official website of the British royal family has been the target of a cyber attack carried out by a group of Russian hacktivists called KillNet. The Mirror reports that the URL royal.uk displayed an error message for around two hours on Sunday morning. According to their information, the site went down at around 10.20am. Although it is back online, it is still slow to load. At the same time, activist KillMilk reportedly posted a message on Telegram claiming responsibility for the successful cyber attack on the royal family’s website.
KillMilk is the leader of the KillNet collective. Earlier this year, he announced on Telegram the creation of Black Skills, a private military company specialising in hacking. KillNet is best known for its DDoS attacks against countries supporting Ukraine, particularly NATO members. This type of attack involves sending thousands of connection requests and packets to the targeted server or website every minute, causing vulnerable systems to slow down or even crash. KillNet attacks do not usually cause major damage, but they can lead to interruptions lasting several hours or even days.
UK targeted for supporting Ukraine
It’s actually hardly surprising that Russian hackers would try to disrupt the Firm’s website, given that it has openly expressed its support for Ukraine. In a speech made on 1 March 2022, when he was still only Prince of Wales, Elizabeth II’s son strongly condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine, describing it as “brutal aggression”, as our British colleagues at L’Express pointed out. King Charles III also showed his support for Ukraine by visiting Ukrainian troops training in the UK earlier this year. In March, Prince William travelled to Poland to meet members of the British and Polish troops who worked closely together to support the Ukrainians after the Russian invasion. Buckingham Palace did not wish to comment on this situation.
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