Cyber ​​attack on Ukraine - authority expresses Russia assumption: resorted to "dirty tricks"?

Created: 02/16/2022, 09:12

By: Julia Volkenand

New hacker attack on Ukraine.

© Jan Eifert/imago

The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense and two major banks were the target of a cyber attack.

KIEV - In Ukraine, the Ministry of Defense and two state-owned banks have become the target of a cyber attack.

This was announced by the authorities in Kiev on Tuesday.

As recently as January, several Ukrainian government websites were exposed to a massive Internet attack.

Cyber ​​Attack on Ukraine: Is Russia Using "Dirty Tricks"?

The authorities in Kiev indirectly referred to Russia as a possible author.

"It cannot be ruled out that the aggressor will resort to dirty tricks," said the agency responsible for communications surveillance, apparently with an eye on Russia and the current conflict with the neighboring state.*

The attack took place in the midst of the Ukraine crisis, against the background of which Chancellor Olaf Scholz* (SPD) met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Tuesday.

Scholz then said at the joint press conference with the Kremlin boss,* there were "enough starting points for things to develop well".

Everything is now being done "to ensure that we use these starting points to make peace in Europe possible".

For his part, Putin denied any intention of war and declared himself ready for further talks.

Ukraine: Only in January there was a major cyber attack

The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense announced on Twitter that it was probably a

DDoS attack, in which pages are overloaded with requests until they collapse.

DDoS stands for Distributed Denial of Service and describes the unavailability of an Internet service that should actually be available.

As recently as January, several Ukrainian government websites were exposed to a massive Internet attack.

The website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs could not be accessed temporarily, nor could the websites of the Ministry of Disaster Management, the Ministry of Research and the cabinet.

In addition, the threatening words "Be afraid and expect the worst" could be read in Ukrainian, Russian and Polish on the website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The cyber attack had also alarmed the country's western partner states, and NATO promised Kiev increased cooperation on Internet security.