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The Royal family’s official website was forced offline after being targeted in a cyber attack for which Russian hackers have claimed responsibility.
It is understood that the website was down for about an hour and a half on Sunday morning but that no access to the site, systems or content was gained.
Russian hacker group Killnet took responsibility for the denial of service (DoS) attack, which is when sites are disrupted because they are bombarded and overloaded with superfluous traffic.
The Royal family’s website was up and running again by midday but had earlier displayed an “error” message to anyone attempting to access it. DoS attacks differ from hacking in that the people targeting the website do not actually gain access or control of the site.
Buckingham Palace insiders suggested that it was impossible to know at this stage who was responsible for the attack.
KillMilk, the leader of Russian hacking group Killnet, claimed responsibility for the attack on social networking site Telegram.
Responding to the news, cyber expert Oseloka Obiora, CTO, RiverSafe said: “Whether you are a prince or pauper, cyber criminals are coming for you and this incident is another reminder of the dangers posed by sophisticated online attacks.
“Moving forward, organisations of all shapes and sizes need to urgently update their cyber defences, both in terms of skills and software, to prevent malicious hackers from achieving their insidious objectives,” he added.
Last year the group was named in a joint warning about cyberattacks on critical infrastructure from the “Five Eyes” alliance, made up of intelligence agencies in the UK, US, Australia, Canada and New Zealand.
By 2.00pm on Sunday, the Royal website appeared to be working only intermittently and was sometimes slow to load.