The Banco de España website was hit on Sunday (26Aug2018) by a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack and has become inaccessible for more than a week. The group claims the attack was a protest in support of the #OpCatalonia #OpCatalunya campaign which has requested the Spanish government to release Catalan political leaders over the region’s struggle for independence last year.

The hack collective usually ends a tweet with “#TangoDown”, which normally means the success of a DDoS attack.

Hey Spain, we see that you are still hurting the Catalan people. This is not a joke. We will hurt your government as well!,

the hackers posted in a tweet via @anoncatalonia! The hacktivists also posted a “proof” that showed how the server hosting the Central Bank website was shut down around the globe.

https://twitter.com/anoncatalonia/status/1033749366069186560

According to a statement released by the bank, the attack cannot affect the communications or services of the bank with other institutions including the EU Central Bank. A spokesperson stressed that:

It’s a dеnial of sеrvice attack that intеrmittently affects accеss to our wеbsite, but it has had no еffect on the normal functioning of the еntity.

Although the Central Bank website remained down for more than a week, the bank authorities didn’t clarify whether it was down because the attack was ongoing or because the website was recovering from the damage of the attack or under precautionary measures.

It is worthy of note that the Bank of Spain is not a commercial bank, and/or does not offer online or on-site services. This is the reason it says its communication with the European Central Bank was not affected. However, to mitigate these kinds of cyber-attacks, banks and other financial institutions must invest in real time protective measures that are capable of detecting DDoS threats prior to them becoming successful. Thankfully, the Spanish bank’s website is now back online.

The Anonymous Collective often relies on DDoS attacks to protest against any incident. Founded in 2003 as a “hacktivist” group, the hack group adopts the Guy Fawkes mask – a stylized portrayal of red cheeks, an oversized smile and a wide moustache upturned at both ends – as its symbol.

The #OpCatalonia protest campaign was launched by the hackers on August 19 and on August 26, they attacked the Bank of Spain’s website. The hacktivists have also focused on other Spanish government websites such as websites of the foreign ministry, Constitutional Court and economy, prior to attacking the bank’s website.

This is not the first time that the Anonymous Collective targeted websites belonging to Spanish government. In October 2017, they attacked website of the Spanish Constitutional Court when Madrid announced the seizure of powers from Catalonia’s regional government because of their separatist movements in the region.

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