a cyber attack temporarily cut off access to several government portals on Friday from Ukraine, officials said.
Although at the moment it was not clear who was responsible for the events, they occurred in a high stress environment with Russia and after talks between Moscow and the West failed to make any significant progress this week.
Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Oleg Nokolenko told The Associated Press that it was too early to know who might have launched the attack, “but there is a long history of Russian cyber assaults against Ukraine in the past”.
Russian troops on the border with Ukraine have generated tension between the two countries. Photo: AFP
Moscow has previously denied being involved in cyberattacks against Ukraine.
Some 70 portals of government agencies — both national and regional — were targeted in the attack, said Victor Zhora, deputy head of the State Service for Special Communication and Information Protection. Zhora stressed, however, that no critical infrastructure was affected and no personal information was leaked.
The hack was a simple “defacement” of government portals, said Oleh Derevianko, a leading private sector expert and founder of cybersecurity firm ISSP. The hackers accessed a content management system used by everyone, but ” they did not gain access to the portals themselves.”
“It could simply be an information operation that sought to undermine the government capacity and create uncertainty” Derevyanko added. It could also be “part of a planned hybrid attack or a more sophisticated long-term operation that is ongoing and has not been completed.”
The central question, he said, is whether it is an action by independent cyber activists or part of a larger state-backed operation.
rising tension
Tensions between Ukraine and Russia have been high in recent months since Moscow deployed approximately 100,000 soldiers near the border, raising fears of invasion.
Russia says it is not planning an attack and rejects Washington’s demands that it withdraw its forces, saying it has the right to deploy them wherever it deems necessary.
The Kremlin has asked the West for security guarantees that their military alliance, NATO, will not move east.
Last month, Moscow submitted draft security documents calling on NATO to deny entry to Ukraine and other former Soviet Union countries, and to reverse their deployments in central and eastern Russia. Europe.
Washington and its allies have refused to commit, but they say they are ready to dialogue.
This week’s high-level talks between Russia and the United States, which were followed by a meeting between representatives of Moscow and NATO and another of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, made no progress.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Friday that the 30-nation military organization will continue to provide “strong political and practical backing” to Ukraine, in light of cyberattacks.
“In the coming days, NATO and Ukraine will sign an agreement on enhanced cyber cooperation, including Ukrainian access to NATO’s platform for sharing malware information,” Stoltenberg said in a statement.
Source: AP
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