Ukraine claims that Russia behind the cyber attack in the hybrid war move

[ad_1]

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) Ukraine said on Sunday that Russia was behind a cyber attack that marred its government’s websites and claimed that Russia is engaged in a growing hybrid war against its neighbor.

The statement from the Ministry of Digital Development came a day after Microsoft claimed that dozens of computer systems in an unknown number of Ukrainian government agencies had been infected with destructive malware disguised as ransomware. That disclosure suggested that the disfigurement attack that drew attention to official websites last week was a diversion.

All the evidence points to Russia behind the cyber attack. Moscow continues to wage hybrid warfare and is actively strengthening its forces in information and cyberspace, the ministry statement said.

The attack comes as the threat of a Russian invasion of Ukraine looms and diplomatic talks to resolve the tense stalemate appear to have stalled.

Microsoft said in a short blog post Saturday that it first detected the malware on Thursday. This would coincide with the attack that simultaneously took some 70 Ukrainian government websites temporarily offline.

Microsoft said in another tech post that affected systems span multiple government, nonprofit, and information technology organizations. He said he didn’t know how many other organizations in Ukraine or elsewhere might be affected, but he said he expects to know more infections.

On Sunday, US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said US and private sector companies are still working to determine the source of the attacks. He said the United States has been warning for months about the possibility of cyber attacks from Russia and has been working with Ukraine to improve that country’s defenses.

This is part of the Russian playbook, he told CBS television’s Face the Nation program.

A leading private sector cybersecurity executive in Kiev, Oleh Derevianko, told The Associated Press that intruders entered government networks through a shared software vendor in a supply chain attack such as the Russian cyber espionage campaign SolarWinds. of 2020 which targeted the US government.

In 2017, Russia targeted Ukraine with one of the most damaging cyber attacks ever recorded with the NotPetya virus, causing more than $ 10 billion in damage globally. That virus, also disguised as ransomware, was a so-called wiper that wiped out entire networks.

During the mass disfigurement of the web on Friday, a message left by the attackers claimed that they had destroyed the data and put it online, which Ukrainian authorities said did not happen.

The message told Ukrainians to be afraid and to expect the worst.

–

Frank Bajak in Boston and Hope Yen in Washington contributed to this story.

[ad_2]