Cyberattack on Ukraine takes down defence ministry website and two banks, Russia blamed
India Today
Ukraine has reportedly been a target of a DDoS cyberattack that knocked off its defence ministry website and two banks offline. The country now blames Moscow for the attack, as its allies come in aid to find the perpetrator.
In the midst of rising tensions between the neighbouring countries of Russia and Ukraine, the latter experienced a cyber attack on its defence ministry and two banks on Tuesday. Following the attack, Ukraine's information security centre has pointed the finger at Russia for using "tactics of little dirty tricks" as the military standoff between the two nations continues.
The Ukraine defence ministry reported on the day that it became the target of distributed denial-of-service or DDoS attacks. The ministry announced the same through a tweet, declaring that its website underwent a cyberattack and that the ministry is now trying to restore access to it. A message on the home page of the Ukraine defence ministry website mentioned that the site was under maintenance.
The type of disruption reported by Ukrainian authorities is known as a distributed denial-of-service or DDoS attack. Such types of cyberattacks work by redirecting a flood of internet traffic garnered from numerous sources to one set of servers. This overloads the servers, rendering them unable to function normally. As Reuters reports, the scale of the attack on Ukraine is not immediately clear.
Other than the website of the defence ministry, Oshadbank also confirmed the cyberattack. The State Savings Bank of Ukraine said that some of its systems slowed down due to the attack. Similar problems with payments and banking app were also reported for Privatbank by the strategic communications centre.
In a statement acknowledging the attack, the Ukrainian Centre for Strategic Communications and Information Security stated, "It is not ruled out that the aggressor used tactics of little dirty tricks because its aggressive plans are not working out on a large scale."
Similar allegations have been made on Russia by Ukraine in the past. With Russia holding over 1,00,000 troops near its border shared with Ukraine, tensions have escalated to a point where the western nations have raised a strong voice against the Putin-led Russian Federation, even promising to come to the aid of Ukraine in case it experiences an attack.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki reiterated this commitment in a press conference that took place after the cyberattacks were experienced. Responding to questions by the press, he said that there were "a range of means that we [US] could respond - both seen and unseen - to a cyber attack or any other attack."
