Cybercriminals Take Responsibility for Spain and Portugal Power Outages | Hacker News Reader

Cybercriminals Take Responsibility for Spain and Portugal Power Outages

leakd.com

21 pointsrocxeliam11 comments

And they provide zero proof...

Any shred of evidence?

I believe there is some circumstancial evidence that this isn't sabotage. Why use something as powerful as this now. If anything it makes your opponent more aware and the timing actually limits the damage, compared to using it during an actual military confrontation.

Once again Russia attacks the west using asymmetric warfare and unfortunately the west has been unable to respond with appropriate measures to dissuade Russia from these types of attacks. Obviously this is the type of attack a state would use prior to engaging in kinetic force, and while I don’t believe that’s the intent this time, it should be treated as such.

There are no pleasant options for Europe if they want to stop Russian aggression and attacks on their sovereignty. I believe it’s time for Europe (and I would say the US but we all know that’s not going to happen) to take meaningful action to permanently stop Russias capability or willingness to continue waging war against them. To not do so is to capitulate to Russia and slowly but surely lose their sovereignty and way of life.

This is far from confirmed.. and anyways the best way is to have a better cyber defense for critical infra..

Very far from confirmed. I just finished reading [0,1] accounts of atmospheric heat anomalies being touted as a cause - alongside speculation about cyber-attacks. Something to remember about terrorist groups and propaganda merchants, is that they'll claim "responsibility" or otherwise misattribute acts immediately to gain attention. Often the first thing reported is what sticks in the public mind.

[0] https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/apr/28/spain-and-p...

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43830946

No, terrorist/political groups almost never claim responsibility for attacks falsely.

And if you think about that, it makes sense. What's the point? The eventual loss of credibility is not worth it for any serious group.

Usually what happens is that they are not believed at first, and then mounting evidence confirms the claim

False flag operations.. and you should hope so, because that would be considered an act of war.. anyways nothing can be excluded

My childhood was in the 1970s and 80s when the 'Troubles' [0] affected Britain, Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic. There were a dizzying number of factions, paramilitaries, volunteer groups, splinter groups... In those times it was rather common for killings and other actions to be mis-claimed, or tactically denied, with specious bomb threats or actual terror acts blamed on a different group. It was a very complex situation, as smouldering war zones usually are. Eventually the leaders from various camps developed codewords and protocols, so that for example the IRA or UVF could message MI5 and have a bomb warning taken seriously, or properly attributed in reporting. Many things that happened in those days were not at all clear cut and remain unknown to this day who really did what. Based on this I would counter that clarity is the exception.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Troubles

Did they hack it, or is it someone using Twitter to spread disinformation, claiming credit for the widespread disruption and implicitly "fear us, we have l33t h4cking skills!"...

Any evidence of Russia involvement? What would even be the point?

I don’t even consider cyberattack a possibility since I assume all systems involved are completely airgapped. This was obviously something done from the inside.

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