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‘Fear’: Ukrainian cyberattacks target government websites News

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The ceasefire has escalated as tensions with Russia have risen, with NATO and the EU vowing to help Kyiv fight more attacks.

A major cyberattack temporarily rendered Ukrainian government websites temporarily unavailable on Friday, officials said.

Although it was unclear who was behind the cyberattack, the disruption intensified tensions with Russia and after talks between Moscow and the West, they have not made much progress this week.

Oleg Nikolenko, a spokesman for the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, told The Associated Press that it was too early to say who might be behind the attack, “but there is a long history of cyberattacks against Russia in the past.”

Moscow has denied involvement in cyberattacks against Ukraine.

The websites of the country’s cabinet, seven ministries, the treasury, the National Emergency Service and state services, where Ukrainians ’e-passports and vaccination certificates are stored, were temporarily unavailable due to the hack on Friday.

The website contained a message in Ukrainian, Russian and Polish stating that Ukrainian personal data had been leaked to the public domain.

“Be scared and expect the worst. This is your past, present and future, ”the message said, in part.

Ukraine’s State Special Communications and Information Protection Service has stated that no personal data has been leaked. Most of the damaged websites were reset on Friday and no critical infrastructure was damaged.

Oleh Derevianko, a leading private sector expert and founder of the ISSP cybersecurity company, said the timing of the disappearance and the provocative message could be important.

“It could be part of a planned hybrid attack or a longer-term, more sophisticated cyber operation that is underway but not finished,” Derevianko said, adding that the main question is whether the hacktivist is an autonomous action or part of a larger state. -backed operation.

Tensions between Ukraine and Russia have risen sharply in recent months as Moscow has gathered about 100,000 troops near the Ukrainian border, sparking fears of an invasion.

Moscow has said it has no plans to attack him and has denied Washington’s request to withdraw its forces.

If the Kremlin has it he asked for security guarantees From the West, NATO denied membership in Ukraine and other former Soviet countries and rejected military alliances with the alliance in Central and Eastern Europe. Washington and its allies have refused to make such commitments, but have said they are ready for talks.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said on Friday that in the coming days “NATO and Ukraine will sign an agreement to improve cyber cooperation, including access to a platform to share NATO malware information in Ukraine.”

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has said the bloc is ready to mobilize resources to improve Ukraine’s ability to withstand cyberattacks.

“Unfortunately, we hoped this could happen,” he said.

Asked who might be behind the attack, Borrell said: “I can’t point anyone out because I have no evidence, but one can imagine.”

Russia has a long history of launching aggressive cyber operations against Ukraine, including hacking its voting system ahead of the 2014 national elections and attacking the country’s electricity grid in 2015 and 2016. In 2017, Russia released one of the most damaging. Cyber ​​attacks registered with the NotPetya virus aimed at Ukrainian businesses and caused more than $ 10 billion in damage worldwide.

In another development, Russia said on Friday that it had disbanded a prominent hacking group REvil, which last year launched a notorious attack on computer software company Kaseya, following a request from Washington.

Cybersecurity was one of the main topics of a summit held by Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Joe Biden last June.

The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) said in a statement that it had “suppressed the illegal activities” of members of the group in a search of 25 addresses that took 14 people.

The search was carried out following an “appeal by the US authorities”.



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