Irish internet service providers are undergoing a series of ‘denial of service’ (DDoS) cyber attacks, although there are no indications that the activity is related to the ongoing HSE ransomware attacks. “Our network is currently unavailable due to a DDoS attack by criminals,” the company tweeted. Criminals often use ‘botnets’, or clusters of machines marshalled to act in unison, to support the DDoS attacks. DDoS attacks of the type currently underway against Irish ISPs typically target smaller organisations with less online capacity as they are easier to overwhelm that larger online businesses. "In the past week, a number of internet service provider networks, of varying sizes, have been intermittently targeted with DDoS attacks in Ireland,” said Eileen Gallagher, interim CEO of the Internet Neutral Exchange Association, which deals with several large ISPs and data providers.

Source: Irish Independent May 18, 2021 17:22 UTC