Notes

Key Ukrainian Government Websites Hit by a Series of Cyberattacks

US warns that an invasion of full-scale in Ukraine could be imminent



The hacking incident occurred in the same week that United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres made an appeal of the eleventh hour to Russia to halt military actions.



Guterres declared that if an operation is actually being planned there is only one request from the deepest of his hearts: President Putin Stop your troops from attacking Ukraine," Guterres said at an emergency meeting of UN Security Council members on Wednesday night in New York. "Give peace a chance. There are too many people who have been killed."
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US officials have warned that Russia is likely to use cyber operations in conjunction with military actions in Ukraine. In the last month the president Joe Biden stated that the US could respond to cyberattacks from Russia.



The website disruptions early Thursday in Ukraine were followed by news Wednesday afternoon of a cyberattack that temporarily knocked offline the websites of the Ukrainian Parliament, Security Service and Cabinet of Ministers.



It was not immediately known who was responsible for the incident or what was the reason behind the hacking attack or the disruptions to websites on Thursday morning. CNN tried to contact the Ukrainian government for comment but they didn't respond immediately.



According to the State Service of Special Communications and Information Protection of Ukraine cyberattacks that targeted Ukrainian websites reported Wednesday morning were "continuation" of cyberattacks that struck Ukrainian government websites on February 15. The White House blamed Russia's military intelligence agency called the GRU, for those hacks, which are known as distribute denial of service (DDoS) attacks since they overwhelm computer servers with fake traffic and shut down websites. The claim was denied by the Russian Embassy in Washington.



Of all the cyber attacks however, the destructive data-wiping tool -- commonly referred to as "wiper" malware -- could be the most devastating. Wiper malware is a form of malware that deletes data from computers, making them unusable. This could hobble organizations trying to remain online in a conflict.



The hack hit at the very least one Ukrainian financial institution and two Ukrainian government contractors, one of which has presence in Latvia and the other having a presence in Lithuania, Vikram Thakur, technical director of Broadcom's cybersecurity unit Symantec, told CNN.



According to cybersecurity firm ESET the malicious code was affecting large companies in Ukraine. ESET has many clients in Ukraine. Jean-Ian Boutin, ESET's threat research department said that the hacking tool was developed about two months ago, but it was only recently implemented and was only seen in Ukraine.



In the event of a wider conflict between Russia and Ukraine, US officials are concerned that transportation networks and broadcast media in Ukraine could be shut down due to cyberattacks or kinetic attacks, a senior Department of Homeland Security told local and state officials on Tuesday.



At the moment, the main goal for the most important Ukrainian government agencies is to be resilient against waves of hacking. Certain agencies have been able to come back online relatively quickly following the DDoS attacks last week. US and numerous allied governments, along with private sector experts, provide cybersecurity support to Ukraine on the ground as well as remotely.



"With an elite cyber power like Russia, you're not going to be able to keep them out 100%, so the goal is resilience," Sen. Mark Warner is the Virginia Democrat who is the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, told CNN.



Warner was asked if the US should carry out its hacking operations as a response to the Russian actions in Ukraine. Warner replied that the US does not open Pandora's Box in cyber escalation.



Warner said that "So far, it's the right strategy." "But we've never seen this sort of circumstance in which Putin is prepared to unleash the troops of 190,000" and threaten Kyiv as well, he added. "We aren't sure what he'll do in the cyberspace."



This headline and story has been updated with additional reports.


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