Many govt websites paralysed by cyber attack

A number of government websites came under denial of service (DoS) attacks on Sunday resulting in their closure, reported the national broadcaster Yle quoting sources at government ICT Centre.

The denial of service attack also prevented users from signing into Finland’s online identity verification site Suomi.fi.

The websites of National Insurance Institution (Kela), Population Register Centre and the police became unavailable following the attack, said the Yle report, adding that some ministry websites such as the ministries of the interior, education and culture and the ministry of social affairs and health were also attacked.

The attack took place at 4:30 pm on Sunday and the users failed to log onto Suomi.fi services. The problem continued for a few hours and the websites could manage to full functionality at night.

“This is the biggest attack we’ve had in the past few months. We need to think how to prepare better for them,” said Valtori CEO Pasi Lehmus.