The situation in Ukraine remains very tense and confused. Several official Ukrainian military websites and two public banks have been the target of a cyberattack, the Ukrainian authorities announced on Tuesday evening, in the midst of a crisis with Russia. “A powerful DDOS attack (computer attack with the objective of rendering a service unavailable) targeting several Ukrainian resources has been observed since the followingnoon,” the State Service for Special Communications said in a statement.
The government’s Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security pointed to the “aggressor” – a term commonly used to refer to Russia – in a statement posted on Facebook.
The attack was directed once morest the websites of the Ministry of Defense and the Armed Forces of Ukraine, which were inaccessible, as well as once morest the banks Privatbank and Oshchadbank, whose online services were disrupted. These two banking institutions resumed their work in the evening.
“A group of specialists (…) cybersecurity is taking all necessary measures to (…) locate the cyberattack,” assured the State Service for Special Communications. This new incident comes at a time when, following intense diplomatic exchanges and the threat of sanctions, Russia, suspected of preparing an invasion of Ukraine, announced on Tuesday the withdrawal of some of its military units massed at the borders. of this country, officially to carry out maneuvers there.
Massive cyberattack in January
Westerners called the announcement a positive sign, but stressed they were waiting for it to be acted upon. A large computer attack targeting strategic Ukrainian infrastructure in order to disrupt the authorities is one of the scenarios mentioned as being the harbinger of a classic military offensive.
In January, Ukraine had already been the target of a major cyberattack once morest a number of government websites. The authorities then claimed to have evidence of Russian involvement.
