Russian hackers hit back in Germany yesterday with cyber attacks on German websites, including airports and banks, in response to the country’s choice to send Leopard tanks to the Ukrainian Army.

Germany’s cyber security agency BSI said, however, that this cyber attack had no serious consequences.

Hacker group Killnet said that it is targeting government websites, banks, and airports with a distributed denial of Service (DDoS) operation, a relatively simple attack that aims to take websites offline by sending a large volume of connection requests to their servers.

Currently, some websites are not accessible, BSI said in a statement. Some services in the financial sector were also targeted.

Killnet is a group of Russians who go by the name “hacker-activists” and act against Ukraine’s allies. In June 2022, the group claimed responsibility for a DDoS attack against the Lithuanian government after Lithuania blocked the shipment of goods to the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad.

US cybersecurity firm Mandiant claims Killnet is linked to another Russian hacking group, Xaknet, which claims to have breached several Ukrainian organizations. Xaknet is likely linked to Russian intelligence services, according to Mandiant.

It is noted that this action comes in response to Germany’s decision to give Ukraine Leopard 2 tanks.

In particular, German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, decided to approve the delivery of main battle tanks, while allowing other countries (such as Poland) to do the same, reports the German magazine Der Spiegel.

Also read: Russia to Lithuania | “Our response to Kaliningrad will not be merely diplomatic”