The website of Conwy County Borough Council was unavailable for much of this morning, with a pro-Russian hacking group claiming responsibility for the disruption.

Visitors attempting to access the council’s website were met with a “Gateway Timeout” error message, preventing access to online services and information.

A council spokesperson confirmed the outage, saying: “Our website is currently unavailable. We’re working to restore the service and apologise for any inconvenience.”

While the cause of the outage has not been officially confirmed, the pro-Russian hacktivist group NoName057(16) claimed on its Telegram channel that it had launched a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack against the council.

DDoS attacks work by overwhelming a website or online service with huge volumes of internet traffic, often generated by networks of compromised computers and devices known as botnets. The flood of requests can exhaust a website’s resources, causing it to slow down or become completely inaccessible to genuine users.

Cybersecurity experts caution that claims made by hacking groups should always be treated carefully. However, NoName057(16) has previously claimed responsibility for attacks that were later confirmed by public bodies and organisations across Europe and the UK.

The group emerged following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and has become known for targeting governments, public institutions, transport networks and organisations in countries perceived as supporting Ukraine.

In the UK, NoName057(16) has previously claimed responsibility for attacks on local authorities including Liverpool City Council and councils in Greater Manchester. The group has also targeted government websites, airports, banks and public services across Europe.

A report prepared for Liverpool City Council described NoName057(16) as a state-linked Russian hacktivist group that has repeatedly targeted Western organisations using large-scale botnet attacks. While security agencies have highlighted links between the group’s activities and Russian interests, direct state control has not been publicly proven.

Cybersecurity specialists note that DDoS attacks differ significantly from ransomware attacks or data breaches. In most cases, the purpose is disruption rather than theft. The attackers typically do not gain access to sensitive information or internal systems, instead attempting to overwhelm publicly accessible websites and online services.

Because DDoS attacks can be launched using thousands or even millions of internet-connected devices spread across the world, tracing those responsible can be difficult. Modern attacks often use compromised computers, servers, routers and Internet of Things devices to generate large volumes of traffic simultaneously.

The incident comes amid a wider increase in politically motivated cyber activity targeting public sector organisations across Europe. The UK’s National Cyber Security Centre has previously warned that local authorities remain attractive targets because of their public visibility and the disruption caused when online services become unavailable.

Conwy Council said its IT teams were working to restore services as quickly as possible but was unable to comment on whether the outage was linked to a cyber attack.

At the time of writing, the council had not confirmed the cause of the disruption, and it remains unclear whether the website outage was directly related to the claim made by NoName057(16).