KYIV (Parliament Politics Magazine): Ukraine claimed that Russia was responsible for a cyberattack that vandalised its official websites and that Russia is engaging in a “hybrid war” with its neighbour on Sunday.
This was declared a day after Microsoft’s announcement about dozens of computer systems at an indefinite number of Ukrainian government entities being attacked with destructive malware posing as ransomware.
The information suggested that the attention-grabbing ill-intended web attack on government websites the previous week was a trick.
All evidence pointed to Russia as the perpetrator of the cyberattack. Moscow is continuing to fight a hybrid war and is proactively building up its troops in the information and cyberspaces, according to a statement released by the ministry.
The attack comes as Russia warns to invade Ukraine and diplomatic attempts to end the heated exchange appear to have stalled.
The spyware was discovered by Microsoft on Thursday, following a short blog post published on Saturday. The discovery coincides with an attack that was responsible for taking down about 70 Ukrainian government websites at the exact time.
“Span multiple government, non-profit, and information technology organisations.” Microsoft wrote in a separate technical post.
It said it didn’t know how many other organisations in Ukraine or elsewhere were affected, but that it anticipated to hear about more such infections.
According to a leading private-sector cybersecurity executive in Kyiv, Oleh Derevianko, attackers breached government networks via a shared software supplier in a supply-chain attack similar to the 2020 SolarWinds Russian cyber-espionage attempt whose target was the government of US.
With the NotPetya virus, Ukraine was attacked by Russia with what is believed to be one of the most devastating cyberattacks on record, costing roughly 10 billion euros in global damage. That virus, which was also identified as ransomware, was a “wiper” that wiped out entire networks.
The attackers left a message in the event Friday’s mass web defacement. They claim to have destroyed the information and posted it online. The authorities of Ukraine, however, have denied it happening.
“Be afraid and expect the worst,” the message warned Ukrainians.
