By Thomas Brewster
The cyber-attacks that hit the websites of the Ukrainian army and two Ukrainian banks on Tuesdaywith Russia portrayed as the No. 1 suspect, are not just a “war of nerves” but could signal a larger-scale offensive in the future by armed means, as Ukrainian officials and cybersecurity experts warn.
At the time it was leaking Conflicting information on the withdrawal of some Russian troops from the border with Ukraine, Kiev confirmed that the Ministry of Defense, the Armed Forces and the financial institutions Privatbank and Oschadbank were the target of DDoS cyberattacks. In these attacks, hackers cause huge traffic to websites and servers, disabling them. The goal is to cause a “short circuit”, no data is stolen and usually no permanent damage to the target’s electronic functions or services.
In recent weeks, cybersecurity experts and officials have warned that Russia could launch an electronic attack on Ukraine before launching a conventional military operation against it.
The banking websites were operating normally until 7.30 pm. (local time) on Tuesday, while the websites of the Ministry of Defense were shut down as a precaution. There was unrest, but no Ukrainians lost money as a result of the attack.
“We are facing unprecedented attacks,” Ukrainian official Victor Zhora told a news conference at the Ukrainian Cybersecurity Center on Wednesday. “I am convinced that the country will withstand this attack by electronic means.” Although officials avoided directly blaming Russia, they said the attack required generous funding – possibly costing millions of dollars – and sought to “psychologically hurt the Ukrainian people.”
John Hultquist, vice president of information analysis at cybersecurity firm Mandiant, told Forbes he agreed. “These are operations against information systems,” Hultquist said. “The real goal is spiritual endurance. If Russia is really hiding behind the incident, then we are dealing with an attack on the sense of security of the people.”
Natalia Tkachuk, a cybersecurity official at Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, told a news conference that Ukraine was “witnessing a critical shift in the mechanisms and purpose of cyberattacks. In the past, they to be aware of the opposing camp or to “neutralize” them. The aim, now, is to destabilize and devalue the authorities. ”
Ilya Vityuk, head of the Cyber ​​Security Division of the Kiev Security Service, added that Ukrainian investigators had identified “a trace of foreign secret services” trying to identify the perpetrators. As he put it, “this week’s cyber-attacks used some of the same Internet infrastructure as the attacks that took place last January, in which data from other Ukrainian entities were falsified or deleted.”
There are fears that digital attacks could signal “something bigger to come”. Ukraine’s Bob Dyachenko, cybersecurity expert, says DDoS attacks may be part of a “preparatory plan” […] “If the perpetrators were trying to play with Ukrainian citizens, ‘most users did not even notice the cessation of the websites,'” he said.
“At the end of the day,” Diachenko added, “it was a low-level attack.”
On Tuesday, the Washington Post quoted US intelligence sources as saying that the Russians had already violated Ukraine’s critical infrastructure and could launch cyber-attacks at any time in preparation for a conventional war. Zhora, however, stressed that he could not confirm these allegations.
Read also:
* Russia’s armament for an invasion and how Ukraine can resist
* Belarus’s “annexation” of Belarus went unnoticed
Source: Capital
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