Russian hackers claim responsibility for attack on Spanish defense contractor that refurbishes Leopard tanks for Ukraine
A pro-Russian hacker group said a unit of General Dynamics, Spain-based Santa Barbara Systems, which is refurbishing Leopard…
A pro-Russian hacker group said a unit of General Dynamics, Spain-based Santa Barbara Systems, which is refurbishing Leopard tanks for delivery to Ukraine, suffered a cyber attack that took its website down, as per Reuters.
In May 2024, sources familiar with the matter said Spain was planning to provide an unprecedented €1.1 billion military aid package to Ukraine.
The package was expected to supply Ukraine with a wide range of military equipment, including a second batch of Patriot anti-aircraft missiles, in addition to the half-dozen already supplied in April.
Furthermore, Spain planned to deliver 19 Leopard 2A4 battle tanks in addition to the ten already supplied last year. The first ten tanks from the new batch were undergoing refurbishment after being in storage for a decade.
After the attack, a spokesperson for General Dynamics in Germany said the defense contractor’s maintenance work was ongoing to analyze the cause of the website outage. The spokesperson added that all of its operations in Europe were running normally.
The NoName hacking group claimed responsibility for the attack.
“We sent our DDoS-missiles against websites in russophobic Spain,” the group said on social media. The hackers often direct such assaults against countries that support Ukraine.
Earlier, Juhan Lepassaar, the head of the EU Agency for Cybersecurity, said that in recent months, a number of digital attacks, many linked to Russian-backed groups, doubled in European countries amid the elections in the EU Parliament.
He added that the attacks with geopolitical motives have risen since Russia launched its war against Ukraine two and a half years ago. Currently, the attacks have also been targeting election-related services.
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