BUCHAREST (BLOOMBERG) - Romanian government websites and other institutions were the target of a cyber attack on Friday morning (April 29) that the nation's intelligence agency attributed to a pro-Russian hacking unit.

The hacker group known as Killnet claimed credit for the so-called distributed denial-of-service attack, which began at around 4am local time, the Romanian Intelligence Service said in a statement.

Such attacks attempt to overload systems by flooding the target with superfluous requests from multiple sources.

The cyber assault hit the websites of the country's defence ministry, border police, railway company CFR Calatori and a financial institution, which were not functional for several hours.

Killnet had previously targeted institutions in the US, Estonia, Poland, the Czech Republic and Nato, the agency said.

Romania's ruling Social Democratic party and Parliament speaker Marcel Ciolacu said this week that the eastern nation bordering Ukraine is considering options for potential military aid to Kyiv.

Mr Ciolacu commented after a visit to Ukraine with Romanian Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca, where they pledged more assistance to help Ukraine defend itself against the Russian invasion.