The Treasury has attributed the distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks to Killnet, the Russian hacker group that claimed responsibility for disrupting the websites of several U.S. states and airports in October, said Todd Conklin, cybersecurity counselor to Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo. The incident, not previously reported, occurred a couple of days before similar attacks from Killnet on U.S. financial services firms, Conklin told a financial services industry and regulator conference on cybersecurity. Conklin described the attack on the Treasury as "pretty low-level DDoS activity targeting Treasury's critical infrastructure nodes." In line with new procedures adopted under the Biden administration, he said the Treasury quickly shared internet protocol (IP) addresses used in the attack with financial services firms. Adeyemo told the conference the incident was a "stark reminder" that Treasury and financial services firms face the same threats, especially since Russia launched its war on Ukraine in February.

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