Ukraine defence ministry website and banks hit with denial of service attacks
The attacks come amid escalating tensions between Russia and Ukraine over a possible Russian incursion
A series of cyber attacks on Tuesday took down the websites of the Ukrainian defence ministry, army and major banks, the Ukrainian authorities said, amid escalating tensions between Russia and Ukraine over the threat of a possible Russian incursion.
The assaults rendered at least 10 Ukrainian websites inaccessible, including Ukraine's two largest banks, Privatbank and Oschadbank, according to Associated Press.
According to numerous Ukrainian government agencies, the disruption was caused by a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack, in which websites are bombarded with a flood of garbage data packets, leaving them unreachable.
The scope of the attack was not immediately clear.
A message on the home page of Ukrainian defence ministry website said that the site was down for repair.
In a tweet, the ministry said that it had received an abnormally high volume of requests to load the website, also adding that it was working to restore access to its website.
Oshadbank disclosed that the cyber attack resulted in slowing down of some of its systems.
Privatbank customers also faced problems with payments and a banking app, according to the Ukrainian Centre for Strategic Communications and Information Security.
The Centre, which is part of the cultural ministry, did not indicate who it believed was responsible for the attack, but a statement implied it was Russia.
'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,' it said.
The reports of cyber attacks sparked alarm, considering US official warnings that Russia may conduct a massive cyber attack on Ukraine's critical infrastructure, such as communications and banking, prior to a ground invasion.
Ukraine has faced numerous Russian cyber assaults since 2014, when Russia invaded the Crimean Peninsula and backed rebels in eastern Ukraine.
A breach of Ukraine's voting system before the 2014 national elections, as well as its power grid in 2015 and 2016, are examples of Russia's previous cyber operations against Ukraine. With the NotPetya virus in 2017, Russia launched one of the most devastating cyberattacks in history, targeting Ukrainian firms and causing more than $10 billion in worldwide damage.
Tensions between Ukraine and Russia are high, with Moscow amassing an estimated 100,000 troops near its extensive border with Ukraine.
Last month, multiple Ukrainian government websites came under a sustained hacking attack, with the attackers leaving menacing messages apparently aimed at intimidating Ukrainian citizens.
The attackers targeted websites belonging to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Cabinet of Ministers, the ministries of energy, education, and agricultural policy and the 'Diia' platform. They warned Ukrainians to "be afraid and expect the worst". The attackers also claimed that they had stolen Ukrainians' personal data from the targeted agencies, and uploaded it online.
The US and its allies say they are prepared to retaliate against Russian cyber incursions.
Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, said there were a variety of measures - both seen and unseen - that could be used to respond to a cyber attack or any other attack from Russia.