Massive Cyberattack on Ukrainian Government Sites

The Russia-Ukraine conflict is escalating day-by-day, and a massive cyberattack on Ukrainian government sites on the night of January 13th has left the country in a state of panic.

Ukrainian officials quickly pointed the finger towards Russia, claiming that they were engaging in a hybrid war. “All evidence indicates that Russia is behind the cyberattack. Moscow continues to wage a hybrid war and is actively building up its forces in the information and cyberspaces,” said a ministry statement.

 

The LIFARS New York City Lab was established in collaboration with the FBI, Department of Homeland Security, and U.S. Secret Service to examine digital evidence of all forms of cybercrime. We operate globally on cases including ransomware, cyber extortion, data breaches, celebrity hacking, Facebook hacking, insider threats, Twitter hacking, Gmail hacking and more.

 

While it’s still not confirmed who’s behind the attacks, it would be to no one’s surprise if this turns out to be accurate, as Russia is increasing its efforts to destabilize Ukraine, with some politicians even claiming that they’re getting ready for an invasion.

The attacks were reported initially by Microsoft, who released a blog post regarding the attacks two days after they happened. In a separate and more technical post, Microsoft wrote that the attacks targeted over 70 Ukrainian government websites, affecting “multiple government, non-profit, and information technology organizations,” including websites belonging to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the State Emergencies Service.

Allegedly, an announcement reading: “Ukrainian! All your personal data has been uploaded to a shared network. All data on your computer is destroyed, it is impossible to restore it,” appeared on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs website when someone tried to access it.

Ukrainian security services assure that no personal data was leaked during the attacks, nor were any contents of the websites altered.

The E.U. showed its support to Ukraine and announced it would be rallying “all its resources” to help Kyiv handle the situation.

NATO is also getting involved, announcing that it will provide “strong political and practical support.”

“In the coming days, NATO and Ukraine will sign an agreement on enhanced cyber cooperation, including Ukrainian access to NATO’s malware information sharing platform,” said NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg shortly after the attacks took place.

Oleh Derevianko, a top cybersecurity expert from Kyiv, said the intruders executed a supply-chain attack by penetrating the government networks through a shared software supplier, similar to the 2020 Russian SolarWinds cyberespionage attack against the U.S.

Jake Sullivan, U.S. National Security Advisor, said that the U.S. has started to collaborate with Ukraine to improve the country’s defenses amid concerns of an increasing number of Russian cyberattacks.

This isn’t the first cyberattack that Russia has executed against Ukraine. In 2017, they caused over $10 billion in global damages with the NotPetya virus, which erased entire networks.

 

References

Ukraine government websites hacked in ′global attack′ | News | DW | 14.01.2022
Ukraine says Russia behind cyberattack in ‘hybrid war’ move (bostonherald.com)
Ukraine claims Russia behind cyberattack in ‘hybrid war’ – ABC News (go.com)
‘Be Afraid:’ Massive Cyberattack Downs Ukrainian Gov’t Sites | Threatpost