2 yıl önce

Cyberattack on Ukraine sites raises fear of 'imminent' Russian raid

Websites of Ukraine's Defence Ministry and armed forces, as well as two state banks hit by cyberattack of possibly Russian origin, says Kiev.

AP

Hacking was concerning, a European diplomat says, because a full military attack on Ukraine would likely be preceded by a cyberattack.

Ukraine has appeared to blame Russia for a cyberattack on the websites of the country's Defence Ministry and armed forces as well as two state banks after Moscow's announcement of a partial troop pullback was met with scepticism.

On Tuesday, the Russian Defence Ministry published footage to demonstrate it was returning some troops to base after exercises.

Hours after Moscow's announcement, Ukraine said the online networks of its Defence Ministry and two banks were overwhelmed in what is called a distributed denial-of-service (DDOS attack). The manoeuvre works when hackers flood a network with unusually high volumes of data traffic to paralyse it.

Although Kiev did not name who was behind the incident, a statement suggested it was pointing the finger at Russia.

"It is not ruled out that the aggressor used tactics of dirty little tricks because its aggressive plans are not working out on a large scale," said the Ukrainian Centre for Strategic Communications and Information Security, which is part of the Culture Ministry.

'Physical attack is imminent'

Ukrainian bank Privatbank users reported problems with payments and a banking app, while Oshadbank said its systems had slowed down.

Russia's Federal Security Service did not immediately reply to a request for comment from the Reuters news agency.

One European diplomat said the hacking was concerning because a full military attack on Ukraine would likely be preceded by a cyberattack.

"It could mean a physical attack is imminent, or it could mean Russia is continuing to mess with Ukraine," the diplomat said, on condition of anonymity.

While such attacks are difficult to attribute, the diplomat said there was no doubt that Russia was behind them.

Tense situation

Tensions between Russia, Ukraine, and the West escalated over the weekend after Western media and US officials reported that Moscow could launch an attack on Ukraine on Wednesday.

Western leaders consider the Russian troop build-up on its border with Ukraine to be the worst threat to the continent's security since the Cold War and have prepared a crippling package of economic sanctions in response to any attack on its neighbour.

The Russian leader and his top aides have consistently argued that the current crisis is the result of the United States and western Europe ignoring Moscow's legitimate security concerns.

SOURCE: TRTWorld and agencies