Ukrainian Government Officially Accuses Russia of Recent Cyberattacks

The government of Ukraine on Sunday formally accused Russia of
masterminding the attacks that targeted websites of public
institutions and government agencies this past week.

“All the evidence points to the fact that Russia is behind the
cyber attack,” the Ministry of Digital Transformation said^[1]
in a statement. “Moscow continues to wage a hybrid war and is
actively building forces in the information and cyberspace.”

The purpose of the attack, said the ministry, “is not only to
intimidate society,” but to also “destabilize the situation in
Ukraine by stopping the work of the public sector and undermining
the confidence in the government on the part of Ukrainians.”

Russia, however, has denied it was behind the intrusion. “We
have nothing to do with it, and Russia has nothing to do with these
cyberattacks,” Dmitry Peskov, press secretary for President
Vladimir Putin, told^[2]
CNN, adding “We are nearly accustomed to the fact that Ukrainians
are blaming everything on Russia, even their bad weather.”

The disclosure comes as scores of Ukrainian government websites^[3] were vandalized on
Friday with an ominous message threatening its citizens to “be
afraid and expect the worst” and alleging their personal
information had been hacked.

According to the Security Service of Ukraine (SSU), the attack
is believed to have been carried out after the malicious actors
gained access to the infrastructure of a private company that had
the rights to manage some of the affected websites.

Separately, Microsoft warned of destructive data-wiping malware
disguised as ransomware being used in attacks against multiple
organizations in Ukraine. The company, which is calling this new
malware family WhisperGate^[4], attributed it to a
threat cluster it’s tracking as DEV-0586.