Ukraine Suffers Greatest Cyberattack In Country’s History as Conflict with Russia Reaches Boiling Point – Opinion

Russia is getting closer and closer towards a physical attack on Ukraine. The country was attacked with the biggest cyberattack, which targeted banks and government sites.

Bloomberg reported that DDoS attacks (distributed disruption of service) have been occurring since Tuesday. They continued through Wednesday. Experts say that the targets have been websites belonging to the Defense Ministry and a site called “Dia” which allows citizens to access digital versions of their passports and Covid vaccination certificates. Mobile banking and cash machine networks were also targeted.

DDoS attacks are when a large number of hacker computers visit one site at a time, overwhelming it and making it malfunction.

Officials in Ukraine believe this was done to cause panic and chaos within the country.

“This attack was unprecedented, it was prepared well in advance, and its key goal was destabilization, sowing panic and creating chaos in our country,” said Mykhailo Fedorov, Ukraine’s minister of digital transformation.

Viktor Zhora, deputy head of State Service for Special Communication and Information Protection believes that the scope of the attack signals it came from a country with resources, and while he didn’t outwardly say it was Russia, evidence suggests Russian intelligence has been responsible for such attacks in the past.

Interestingly, no money was stolen from the banking hack, leading officials like Deputy Secretary of the National Security Council Serhii Demedyuk to conclude that the attack was “purely psychological.” Bloomberg, however, noted that Ukrainians seem used to interruptions in online banking services:

A cyberattack in 2015 cut power to over 200,000 people, and another one a year later knocked down a northern Kyiv power plant. Those attacks were carried out with involvement from Russia’s GRU intelligence agency, according to charges the U.S. Department of Justice unsealed in 2020.

“DDoS attacks happen every day,” said director of internet analysis at Kentik Inc. Doug Madory. “Maybe the only thing interesting about yesterday’s attacks was the context that they occurred in.”

Madory signaled that disrupting the Ukrainian army’s payments could be a possible alternative to armed conflict.

“If the Ukraine-Russia conflict just consists of DDoS attacks against banks and the website of the UA army, that’s probably the best-case scenario as compared to armed conflict.”

Moscow denied being behind the attack on Ukraine’s cyberspace, although there have been many signs that this is the case.

Russian troops recently made way onto Ukrainian territory, a move Biden and the administration is calling a “minor incursion.” To be sure, the invasion is underway and war is rearing back a bald fist to knock on Ukraine’s door.