Ukraine accuses Russian hackers of preparing large-scale attack

Ukraine accuses Russian hackers of preparing large-scale attacks. Photo: AP

Specifically, hackers have targeted many companies, including banks and energy infrastructure businesses. All of these moves are considered by Ukrainian authorities to be preparations for a comprehensive and simultaneous attack.

Kiev is currently working with foreign governments to identify the hackers.

In the past, Ukraine was hit by one of the most powerful cyber attacks in history, when a virus called “NotPetya” attacked and shut down many government agencies and businesses in the country in June last year. “NotPetya” even spread to many companies around the world, causing billions of dollars in damage.

“The fact that the Ukrainian government decided to go public with this information shows that they are concerned that the attack will have a major impact and that people need to know about it,” said Jaime Blasco, chief cybersecurity scientist at security firm AlienVault. He said it is difficult to prevent the impact of a cyberattack within a country, so the threat has the potential to spread globally.

Ukraine's cyber security chief Serhiy Demedyuk. Photo: AFP

Since the beginning of the year, Ukrainian police have identified many types of viruses "hiding" in emails sent from legitimate domains of government agencies and institutes. These domains have been hacked and impersonated with a fake website to deceive users.

Commenting on a possible new wave of attacks, Mr. Demedyuk predicted that the virus could be activated en masse as early as Ukraine's Constitution Day (June 28) or as late as Ukraine's Independence Day (August 24).

However, Mr. Demedyuk said the scale of this cyberattack will not be as large as the “NotPetya” attack. Mr. Demedyuk affirmed: “Everything we see, everything we detect at this stage: 99% of the signs come from Russia.”

Currently, the Kremlin has not responded to the above accusations from Ukraine./.