Cyberattack in Ukraine targets government sites
Russia suspected but denies responsibility
KYIV, Ukraine – A cyberattack left a number of Ukrainian government websites temporarily unavailable on Friday, officials said.
While it wasn’t immediately clear who was responsible for the cyberattack, the disruption came amid heightened tensions with Russia and after talks between Moscow and the West failed to yield any significant progress this week.
Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Oleg Nikolenko said it was too soon to tell who could have plotted the attack, “but there is a long record of Russian cyberassaults against Ukraine in the past.”
Moscow had previously denied involvement in cyberattacks against Ukraine.
About 70 websites of national and regional government bodies were targeted in the attack, according to Victor Zhora, deputy chair of the State Service of Special Communication and Information Protection. Zhora said no critical infrastructure was affected and no personal data was leaked.
The hack amounted to a simple defacement of government websites, said Oleh Derevianko, a leading private sector expert and founder of the ISSP cybersecurity firm. The hackers got into a content management system they all use, but “didn’t get access to the websites themselves.”
“It could be just a regular information operation (seeking) to undermine
the government’s capability and to create and enhance uncertainty,” Derevianko said. It could also possibly be “part of a planned hybrid attack or longer term and more sophisticated cyber operation which is underway but has not culminated.”
The main question, said Derevianko, is whether this is a standalone hacktivist action or part of a larger statebacked operation.
Tensions between Ukraine and Russia have been running high in recent months after Moscow amassed an estimated 100,000 troops near Ukraine’s border, stoking fears of an invasion. Moscow says it has no plans to attack and rejects Washington’s demand to pull back its forces, saying it has the right to deploy them wherever necessary.
The Kremlin has demanded security guarantees from the West that NATO deny membership to Ukraine and other former Soviet countries and roll back the alliance’s military deployments in Central and Eastern Europe. Washington and its allies have refused to provide such pledges, but said they are ready for the talks.
High-stakes talks this week between Moscow and the U.S., followed by a meeting of Russia and NATO representatives and a meeting at the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, failed to bring about any immediate progress.
NATO Secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg said Friday that the 30-country military organization will to provide “strong political and practical support” to Ukraine in light of the cyberattacks.