Australia’s home affairs department hit by DDoS attack claimed by pro-Russia hackers

The Department of Home Affairs, which is responsible for Australia’s cybersecurity, national security and immigration, was affected by distributed denial-of-service attack on Thursday night. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP

The department responsible for Australia’s cybersecurity, national security and immigration has confirmed it was hit with a distributed denial-of-service attack on Thursday night that took its website offline for five hours, after a pro-Russia hacker group said it would target the site over Australia’s support for Ukraine.

The group posted on Telegram on Thursday night that it was targeting the home affairs department with a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack after Australia announced this week that Slinger technology aimed at combating drones would be sent to Ukraine in the push back against the Russian invasion.