DDoS Attack Knocks Out Andorra's Internet
A distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack hit Andorra’s sole internet provider late last week, effectively knocking the entire country offline for hours for four days,
“Several DDoS attacks that sought to harm the programming of some YouTubers, have affected the Internet and 4G service of some Andorra Telecom customers,” Andorra Telecom said in a statement. The attack brought the nation's connectivity down to around 37.5 percent, Internet monitor NetBlocks found.
Andorra has a population of around 77,543 and is bordered by France to the north and Spain to the south. The state owns the sole telecoms company, Andorra Telecom, which also runs a small data center business.
In a separate event, a group known as Cyber Partisans used ransomware to disrupt trains in Belarus. The hackers demanded the release of political prisoners and a promise that Belarus Railways wouldn't transport Russian troops amid increasing potential invasion issues in Ukraine. While nation state actors have deployed fake ransomware for political ends before, this appears to be the first large-scale, politically motivated use of an attack method usually used for cyber crime.
There are numerous examples in Iran, Belarus and elsewhere where state controlled telecoms services have been switched off by government to control information and to quell domestic dissent, both these events demonstrate the vulnerability of small states with unitary telecoms infrastructure to external attack.
Andorra, small independent European principality situated among the southern peaks of the Pyrenees Mountains and bounded by France to the north and east and by Spain to the south and west. It is one of the smallest states in Europe.
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