More Than One and a Half Million Cyber Attacks Launched on Ukrainian Government Agencies Over Six Months

Over the first six months of this year, experts of the State Service of Special Communications and Information Protection of Ukraine blocked 1.7 million network attacks on government agencies.

According to the press service of the Cabinet of Ministers, the system of detecting vulnerabilities and responding to cyber incidents and cyber attacks recorded more than 50 million suspicious incidents over the first half of the year. In addition, about 100,000 cyber incidents were registered and processed; more than 400 DoS and DDoS attacks on government agencies were stopped. Out of them, 26% were launched using IP addresses of the Russian Federation.

Ukrainian experts noted that attackers began using in February a relatively new mechanism of cyber attacks on websites of the security and defence sector of Ukraine to block their work. In particular, during an attack, vulnerable web servers and government workstations are infected by a virus that makes them part of a botnet.

The Cabinet of Ministers stressed that only 17% of global companies could actively resist cyber threats, so most companies invest in the creation of cyber security departments. In view of this, the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine is working to maximise the safety of domestic users.

Earlier, a group of Russian hackers carried out a series of cyber attacks on the web portal of the Ukrainian Navy and posted fake information about Sea Breeze 2021 military exercises on the website.

In addition, according to Microsoft data, Russian hackers from the Nobelium group tried to target American and British government agencies, IT companies, NGOs, and think tanks.

Bohdan Marusyak