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The website for the U.S. Congress was down for a short time Thursday evening and a hacking group known as “Killnet” claimed to have conducted an attack.
Congress.gov appeared to be down with users being given an “Error 522” or “Connection timed out” message when trying to access the site. The website went down around 10 p.m. Thursday evening.
Users trying to access Congress.gov were met with an error message Thursday evening. Pro-Russian hacking group Killnet claimed to have carried out an attack on the site.
(Fox News)
Killnet, a pro-Russian hacker group known for DDoS or denial-of-service attacks, claimed it had conducted an attack on the site.
A denial-of-service attack is a cyberattack that happens when users are unable to access information systems, devices or other network resources due to the actions of a malicious threat actor, according to the U.S. Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency.
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As of 10:45 p.m. Thursday evening, some users were able to access Congress.gov after it had been down for a short time.
(Fox News)
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The agency says the most common method of attack occurs when an attacker floods a network server with traffic causing it to become overwhelemed.
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Russian flag displayed on a laptop screen and binary code displayed on a screen are seen in this multiple exposure illustration photo.
(Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
As of around 10:45 p.m. Thursday, Congress.gov appeared to be back up and running for some users.
The individual websites for the House and Senate appeared to be unaffected.