Cyberattacks hit Ukraine's Ministry of Defense and Armed Services websites, causing them to shut down on Tuesday, a move that some fear is the latest Russian effort in its plans to invade the Eastern European country.
Some individuals fear that the cyberattacks are Moscow's attempts to cause confusion and disruption in Ukraine as President Vladimir Putin considers his next move. Privatbank and Oshadbank were also struck, said the State Service for Special Communication and Information Protection (SSSCIP), Ukraine's cybersecurity agency, warned on Tuesday.
Cyberattack on Ukraine
There were reports that some users had trouble making payments using their devices' banking applications. In an assessment, Ukraine's Ministry of Defense noted that the attacks on government websites were most likely DDoS attacks. The process is where a hacker hits a website with an overwhelming number of requests to force the network into a malfunction.
Government officials said that they were doing work to restore the sites and return services to normal. While some fear that Russia is behind the recent cyberattacks, there has been no solid proof that Moscow was responsible for the incidents, as per Yahoo News.
A deputy chairman at the SSSCIP, Victor Zhora, who was investigating the incident, said that it was still too early to make any concrete conclusions of who was behind the incident. But the cyberattacks came as Russia has amassed roughly 150,000 troops close to its border with Ukraine.
The situation comes as United States officials warned that a fresh Russian invasion of Ukraine could come any day now. On the other hand, Moscow has repeatedly denied claims that it was planning to invade its neighboring country.
According to CNN, access to the websites of the two banks affected by the cyberattacks has been restored by 7:30 p.m. local time, said Ukrainian officials. Several journalists for CNN who were in Ukraine reported having difficulties in accessing websites of the defense agencies on Tuesday night.
Threat of Cyber Criminals
While DDoS attacks are relatively cheap to conduct and do not inflict severe damage to a network, it is extremely difficult to track the perpetrator. Cybercriminals can hide their location and make it seem like they are coming from a country they are not originally from.
Previously, United States President Joe Biden warned that a war in modern times would not be fought with soldiers and machines, but rather, as a consequence of a cyber breach. The Democrat made his remarks warning of the risks of cybercrimes spinning out of control during his intelligence brain trust in July of last year.
The situation comes as Western officials are warning that Russia could conduct cyberattacks against Ukraine's NATO allies amid rising tensions. While no one is suggesting that the incident could lead to a full-blown war between nuclear-armed rivals, the risk continues to rise.
Despite the concerns, it is unclear how severe the consequences of a malicious cyber operation by a state actor would be to get called an act of war. The director of the European Cyber Conflict Research Initiative, Max Smeets, said that the rules were "fuzzy" and that there was no clear distinction between what was allowed and what was forbidden, KSL reported.
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