Ukraine says evidence suggests Russia behind cyber attack | New Cybersecurity

Kyiv is accused of waging a “hybrid war” against Russia after Microsoft said dozens of government agencies were infected with malware.

Ukraine has said it has evidence that Russia is behind it cyberattack which frustrated his government’s websites and accused Moscow of waging a growing “hybrid war” against it.

“All the evidence indicates that Russia is behind the cyberattack,” the Ministry of Digital Development said in a statement released by Microsoft on Sunday, saying that several Ukrainian government agency computer systems were infected with destructive malware disguised as ransomware a day later. .

The disclosure suggested that the attack on the official website last week was a diversion.

“Moscow continues to wage a hybrid war and is actively strengthening its intelligence and cyberspace,” the statement said.

It comes as an attack Russia has allegations The gathering of about 100,000 troops near the Ukrainian border, as the West seeks a commitment to never allow the former Soviet state to join NATO.

Leading Russian and U.S. officials have held talks in Geneva this week, but no progress has been made, and Washington warned later this week that Moscow could conduct a false-flag operation to save the invasion within a week.

Russia has been warned more than once that Western powers would attack Ukraine again if it would have “massive” consequences, even if they were likely to take the form of sanctions instead of any military retaliation.

Microsoft said in a brief blog post on Saturday that it had detected malware for the first time on Thursday.

This would coincide with an attack that left about 70 Ukrainian government websites offline.

Microsoft said in a technical post that the affected system “includes multiple government, non-profit, and information technology organizations.” He said he was unaware that more organizations could be harmed in Ukraine or elsewhere, but said he hoped to be aware of more infections.

Oleh Derevian, a senior cybersecurity chief in Kiev’s private sector, told The Associated Press that the intruders had entered government networks through a shared software provider in a supply chain attack, targeting the US government’s 2020 SolarWinds Russian cyberespionage campaign.

In 2017, Russia targeted Ukraine with one of the most damaging cyberattacks registered with the NotPetya virus, causing more than $ 10 billion in damage worldwide. This virus, also disguised as ransomware, was a so-called “washer” that wiped out entire networks.

In a massive disappearance of the network on Friday, a message left by the attackers said that the data had been destroyed and put on the network, which the Ukrainian authorities said did not happen.

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