Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Targeted by Hackers

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), broadcasting from Prague into 20 countries, including Moldova, was subject to a DDoS-attack (Distributed Denial of Service). The attack began on Thursday, November 14th and affected the Moldova office as well.

Vasile Botnaru, chief of the Chisinau Bureau of RFE/RL, confirmed the information for Media Azi, and said the cyber attack had been initiated the previous week. He explained the Moldovan version of the website was also affected, as it is hosted on the central server of RFE/RL.

The cyber attack slowed down the speed for uploading news, photos and video reels by reporters, but it users could still access the websites.

According to a statement by the President of RFE/RL, Kevin Klose, published on the radio station's site, the company's IT departments were still collecting information about the source of the DDoS attack. RFE/RL technical staff, in cooperation with international specialists from the Computer Emergency Response Team, are trying to put an end to shutdowns and isolate the source.

So far, the investigation showed the attacks had been conducted in proportion of 80% from China and 20% from Russia.

In 2008, the Belarusian editorial office of the RFE/RL became a victim of DDoS-attack.

photo source: Wikimedia Commons