Russian defense ministry website shut down by foreign hackers

July 16 (UPI) -- Russia's defense ministry has been the target of a foreign cyberattack, government officials in Moscow said Friday.

The ministry said its website was targeted by a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack that originated from outside Russia.

State-owned news outlet Sputnik News reported that the digital assault did not cause any infrastructure damage.

The ministry's website was restored a short time later.

"The official website of the Russian Ministry of Defense has been operating normally since 12:25 Moscow time and is fully accessible to all Internet users", the ministry said, according to Sputnik News.

According to cybersecurity provider McAfee, a DDoS attack happens when hackers flood a network with so much malicious traffic that it cannot operate or communicate normally.

State-run agency TASS reported that the ministry website went down early Friday and "specialists" worked to get it back online.

The cyberattack came on the same day Russian and U.S. delegations are expected to meet to discuss digital security.

U.S. President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin committed earlier this month to continue talks about information security and fighting cybercrimes. There have been tensions recently between Moscow and the United States over various attacks against U.S. targets that were said to originate from Russia.