The night hacker attack on websites of Ukraine's state institutions was carried out from Russia - CSCIS
Government experts argue that the hacker attack on Ukrainian government websites on the night of January 14 was carried out from Russia.
This is stated on the website of the Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security (CSCIS).
"Ukrainian Internet resources have been attacked for the first time and not for the second time since the beginning of Russia's military aggression. Some cyberattacks have been so widespread that they have become part of the world's textbooks for cyber specialists.
But such a mass attack on government agencies was long ago. We assume that the current one is connected with the recent defeat of Russia in the negotiations on the future cooperation of Ukraine with NATO. The other day Moscow resumed military exercises near Ukraine's borders. And hacking actions against Ukrainian government agencies may also be part of this psychological attack on Ukrainians.
The chronology of the spread of the news also points to the Russian trace. The information first appeared on social media, then the first publications in the media were 'drain tanks.' And then it was actively distributed by Russian publications," the statement reads.
In particular, the Russian pro-government publication RIA was one of the first to report the attack at 4 am (Kyiv time).
Government experts explained that the use of sensitive topics in the history of Polish-Ukrainian relations should have masked the trail of Russian hackers.
However, the Polish text contains stylistic inaccuracies and lexical errors, which were confirmed by Ukrainian cyber experts and Polish colleagues.
The center stressed that the attack on Ukraine's government portals could be interpreted as one of the examples of Russian aggression against the state of Ukraine. Therefore, the center hopes to impose sanctions on the Russian structures connected with the attack.
They reminded that the last such hacker attack on the websites of Ukrainian public organizations and the media happened after the Ukrainian army used Bayraktar drones against Russian militants in Donbas in October 2021.
In addition, government experts stressed that the personal data of Ukrainian citizens were not stolen or lost, contrary to reports from hackers.
Note
On the night of January 14, hackers hacked several government websites, including the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Diia portal, etc., and published their message in three languages: Ukrainian, Russian and Polish. The text threatens that Ukrainians should be afraid and wait for revenge for "Volyn, Polissia, the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, and historical territories."
In addition, the report said that hackers stole the personal data of Ukrainian citizens.
The Security Service and the Ministry of Digital Transformation immediately said that there was no data leak. Ukrainian cyber specialists are currently investigating the technical side of the cyber attack and restoring the site.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell condemned the cyberattack and promised that European experts would help Ukrainian counterparts resolve the situation.
Polish journalists also noted the stylistic inaccuracies and strange choice of tokens in the Polish text published by hackers.
