UA
FR
DEOn the night of 13-14 January, a large-scale cyber attack on the websites of the Ukrainian state and regional authorities was launched.
Deputy Head of the State Service of Special Communications and Information Protection of Ukraine Viktor Zhora said at a briefing that a total of about 70 sites had been affected. It was the most powerful cyber attack on Ukraine over the past four years.
At the same time, the state registers were not damaged as a result of the attack, and the personal data of Ukrainian citizens were not compromised; they did not leak. The content of the sites was also not affected.
“We are gathering evidence, analysing log files to track the entire route of this attack. As soon as we make sure that there are no third parties in the system, that there is no malicious code, and we gather all the necessary evidence, the work of these sites will be restored,” Zhora said.
The State Service of Special Communications and Information Protection of Ukraine is not yet ready to say who is responsible for the cyber attack, but “the first information report about the attack on our government sites was made by the information resources of the neighbouring country.”
Ukrainian cyber specialists will gather evidence and start analysing log files today.
At the same time, Josep Borrell, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, condemned the cyber attack on the websites of Ukrainian institutions and said that the EU’s political and security committee and cyber units would meet to decide how to respond and help Kyiv.
“We are going to mobilise all our resources to help Ukraine to tackle this cyber attack. Sadly, we knew it could happen,” Borrell said. He also added that he could not blame anyone for these illegal actions as there was no proof, but “we can imagine” who is behind it.
Bohdan Marusyak
