Ukraine has been hit by a “massive” cyber-attack, with several government websites, including the ministry of education and foreign affairs, knocked out by hackers.
As per the official’s statement, right now, it is too soon to draw any conclusion, keeping in view a “long record of Russian cyber assaults against Ukraine”. The attack came after the security discussion between the US and Moscow ended dead-end.
The suspected Russian hackers left a note on the foreign ministry website that said, “Ukrainians! … All information about you has become public. Be afraid and expect worse. It’s your past, present and future”, reported the officials.
The message had a Ukrainian flag and its map, both were crossed out. The message also referred to the Ukrainian insurgent army, which fought during the second world war against the Soviet Union. The attackers also mentioned “historical land”.
Oleg Nikolenko, the country’s foreign minister, revealed to the Guardian, “As a result of a massive cyber-attack, the website of the ministry of foreign affairs and other government agencies are temporarily down.”
“Our specialists have already started restoring the work of IT systems and the cyber-police has opened an investigation” he added.
Meanwhile, the EU’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, condemned this sub-standard act and planned to gather the EU’s political and security committee and EU’s cyber units to respond to the threat mutually.
“We are going to mobilise all our resources to help Ukraine to tackle this. Sadly, we knew it could happen,” said Borrell. It’s difficult to say [who is behind it]. I can’t blame anybody as I have no proof. But we can imagine”, he added.
Ann Linde, Sweden’s foreign minister, stands with Ukraine to respond to any Russian aggression, “We have to be very firm in our messages to Russia, that if there are attacks against Ukraine, we will be very harsh and very strong and robust in our response” she said.
Linde made it clear that Sweden stands with Ukraine in this fight against Russia with her statement.
Ukraine has consistently been targeted since 2014, following when Moscow took over Crimea and began a war in eastern Donbas. Later, in 2021, around 288,000 cyber-attacks hit the country’s system in the initial 10 months. While 397,000 in 2020.
