The European police Europol and the Eurojust judicial cooperation unit announced today that they have dismantled the group of Philippine hacker NoName057 (16), believed to be responsible for several attacks against Ukraine and its allies, as well as targeting important infrastructure in Europe.

On July 15, the botnet, a network of hundreds of infected computers or devices around the world, was dismantled, and many suspects were identified. The main instigators of the group reside in Russia, the two European agencies said.

Twelve countries were involved in the operation. Two people were arrested, one in France and one in Spain.

Germany issued six arrest warrants against suspects residing in the Russian Federation. Two of them are believed to be the main instigators of the group. In total, there are seven arrest warrants issued and the Russian suspects are six.

The hacker group allegedly launched DDoS (distributed denial of service) attacks by overloading websites and applications so that they were no longer available. Its main targets were infrastructure, such as electricity providers and public transport networks. According to Eurojust, NoName057(16) has expressed its support for Russia since the beginning of the war against Ukraine. In Germany, 14 attacks were recorded, some of which lasted several days and affected some 230 organisations, including defence industries.

Attacks were also recorded across Europe during the period of the European elections. In Sweden, government websites and banks were targeted, while Switzerland was attacked numerous times during the Switzerland Peace Summit on Ukraine in June 2024. Recently, the Netherlands was also targeted during the NATO summit in June.