EU Parliament hit by cyberattack after declaring Russia a sponsor of terrorism

The European Parliament was hit by a cyberattack Wednesday, officials said, hours after it voted in favor of a resolution calling Russia a state sponsor of terrorism.

Jaume Duch, a spokesman for the EU Parliament, said on Twitter that its website was down due to a distributed denial-of-service attack, which is a kind of cyberattack that overwhelms a targeted site with a flood of internet traffic.

The Parliament, which is one of the legislative bodies of the European Union, is “working to resolve this issue as quickly as possible,” Duch said.

Parliament President Roberta Metsola said a pro-Russian group has claimed responsibility for the “sophisticated cyberattack.”

The Parliament’s resolution calling Russia a state sponsor of terrorism was largely symbolic, as it lacks the legal framework to impose consequences for the declaration. But the EU has imposed several harsh sanctions on Russia since its invasion of Ukraine.

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