Since January, Ukraine has been subjected to several cyberattacks on official and non-government websites. Ukraine’s communication intelligence service claimed on January 14, 2022, that as many as 70 central and provincial government websites were attacked. This is not the first cyber strike intended to cripple Ukrainian infrastructure. While such assaults are infamous for their difficulty in identification, state and non-state actors in Russia have been the primary suspects in a series of significant strikes on Ukrainian infrastructure since 2014.

Such attacks have run parallel to the rising tensions along the border, allegedly intended to instil fear and damage infrastructure. When considered through the prism of Russia’s cyber offensive operations in its continuous struggle against Ukraine since 2014, the present strikes make more sense. Over the previous eight years, Moscow has been accused of a series of cyberattacks, including temporary power disruptions in Ukraine in 2015 and 2016. The notorious NotPetya assault in 2017 was the world’s largest of its type, resulting in damage of more than USD1 billion.

Ukraine was subjected to 288,000 cyberattacks in the first ten months of 2021. In recent weeks, what is thought to be one of Ukraine’s most tremendous distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks was conducted. It brought down several of Ukraine’s banks and government agencies. Indeed, all of this points to cyberattacks playing a significant role in the ongoing Russian-Ukraine war. 

As Russia intensifies cyberattacks on Ukraine in tandem with a military invasion, authorities on both sides of the Atlantic are concerned that the crisis may spread to other nations, resulting in all-out cyber warfare. Following President Vladimir Putin’s announcement of a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the hacking collective Anonymous launched a cyberwar against the Russian government.

The blitz of attacks has fuelled worries of more extensive cyber warfare, with Western countries bracing for Russian cyberthreats and pondering how to act. Authorities in both the United States and the United Kingdom are urging businesses to look for unusual behaviour from Russia on their networks. Meanwhile, authorities have warned that European states should be aware of their countries’ cybersecurity conditions.

Also, Read

The EU mobilises its cyber force to assist Ukraine in combating Russian assaults- https://www.worldcybersecurities.com/eus-cyber-army-to-aid-ukraine-in-combatting-russian-assaults/.

To get the latest updates on various cyber-related events & other things, you can join our Whatsapp group / Telegram Channel. 

-Adv. Sabrina Bath

(Content Writer, WCSF)