After Hackers Target Parliament: Finns Advised to Keep Calm and Carry On

In recent months a number of the authorities' websites in both Finland and Sweden have been hit by cyberattacks. The latest target is the Finnish Parliament itself.

DDoS attacks may sound worse than they really are, says Finnish IT-expert Petteri Järvinen who claims to be not particularly worried about the events.

"Overload attacks are closest to compare to protest marches, as they usually yield no actual harm," says Järvinen as quoted by the Finnish national broadcaster Yle. According to him, for the most part it's just a PR-loss for the victims.

Two weeks ago, several Finnish authorities' websites came under attack, last weekend several media sites were struck in Sweden, and the day before yesterday the Finnish Social Insurance Institution's website was hit. On Tuesday, it was the Finnish Ministry of Defense's turn. On Wednesday afternoon, the Finnish Parliament was subjected to an overload attack. The Parliament's public network service was knocked out for several hours. The Parliament has not yet commented on the incident.

A DDoS attack means that the server that the website is hosted on is overloaded with traffic being sent there too fast, for example, from thousands of unique IP-addresses simultaneously, at the same time shrouding the identity of the actual perpetrator.

"It is plain sabotage, because this kind of attack is very easy to perform," says Järvinen.

The Finnish news program Yle Nyheter has, for instance, discovered a hacker who is willing to perform such an attack for a mere 500 euros.

"Overload attacks can be easily purchased online. For a few hundred euros you can order a DDOS-attack against virtually anyone," argues Järvinen, who also points out that almost every website can potentially fall victim to one.

In Sweden, the police are trying to track down an anonymous Twitter account that on the weekend published a threat just minutes before the extensive cyber-attack on the Swedish media. The account also warned that in the following days further attacks would be directed against the Swedish Government and the media who spread "false propaganda."

Although the attacks were initially pinned on the Russian government owing to the fact that Russian IP addresses had been used during the crime, further investigation revealed immigration critics to lie behind the web assault.

The Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet went so far as to call the attacks on the Swedish media a threat to democracy. This doesn't impress Järvinen too much.

"No, it's not a threat to democracy. Media houses must ensure that their websites have enough capacity to withstand possible attacks", says Järvinen, suggesting that it is also a good idea to have a plan B in case your website is not working.

Even the mobile network company TeliaSonera experienced problems with their websites yesterday, which began about the same time as the cyber-attack against the Ministry of Defense.