British Army and Royal Navy hit by cyberattacks from pro-Russian and pro-Palestinian hackers

- A coalition of hackers supporting Russia and Palestine, known as the Holy League, is conducting weekly cyberattacks on British military, intelligence, and infrastructure agencies. This group consists of about 90 hacktivist collectives that oppose Western liberal values. Their goal is to wage cyberwarfare against Ukraine and Israel's allies, including the UK. Some members are linked to Russia's GRU military intelligence and are hackers trained by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. - British government agencies have faced repeated attacks in recent months, as reported by The Times. The group has claimed responsibility for targeting the websites of the British Army, Royal Navy, Office for Nuclear Security, and MI6. One hacker, known as "Mr Hamza" from Morocco, stated that worse attacks are expected in the future. - Most of the attacks are simple distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, which overwhelm websites with traffic, often taking them offline for a few minutes or potentially causing longer disruptions and making them more vulnerable to serious breaches. - The UK government recognizes the rising threat from these attacks. GCHQ, the countrys intelligence and cyber security agency, has stated that hacktivist groups aligned with state actors have increased the risk to critical national infrastructure. The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has reported a rise in politically motivated attacks on essential systems and identified Russia and Iran as key players. The Cyber Army of Russia Reborn (Carr), a member of the Holy League, is described as posing an active threat to poorly defended systems. - Carr is believed to operate for APT44, a cyberwarfare unit of the GRU. Googles Threat Intelligence team has connected Carrs YouTube profiles to IP addresses used by APT44. In July 2021, two Carr members were sanctioned by the US for hacking water facilities in the US and Poland. Carr has also taken responsibility for a cyberattack on the M6 motorway in Britain with another pro-Russian group, NoName057(16). - The Holy League's founder, known as Abu Omar, mentioned he collaborates with partners across Russia, Belarus, North Africa, and the Middle East, claiming that his group received training from the IRGC-affiliated Badr Organisation in Iraq. While a government spokesperson did not comment on specific incidents, they emphasized a commitment to using all tools to disrupt cyber threats and ensure public safety.