While these hacktivists often operate under some form of government wing, making them more than just the digital equivalent of “Restore the Wetlands”, I still think it makes sense to treat the DDoS attacks more as activists than as part of a hybrid war. Although they absolutely can be.
Because without playing it down too much, the DDoS attacks are not doing much damage. Of course, it’s not good that Swish or Bank-id are down for a few hours, but it’s not a threat to society either. It bothers me a bit that there are always critics who go on and on about poor resilience, “our vulnerable digital society” and the risks of being so dependent on a few services. These things are important to talk about, but bringing them up in the context of these attacks is exactly what the hacktivists want.
It also puts the focus and responsibility on the victims, even though they have done a pretty good job of protecting themselves. The services are back up and running. Few people blame the Swedish Transport Administration when the Essingeleden road jams because climate activists have glued themselves to the roadway, or the airport when the same group of activists prevents a plane from taking off from Malöga. But in some people’s eyes, it seems that those providing digital services need to spend their entire IT budget with Cloudflare to avoid criticism.
