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Russian military hackers were behind a series of cyberattacks that briefly took Ukrainian banking and government sites offline this week, the US and UK allege.

The Foreign Ministry said in a statement that it distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks against the Ukrainian banking sector and the Ministry of Defense on February 15 and 16, 2022, involving Russia’s GRU, the country’s largest foreign intelligence agency.

He said the attack “demonstrated a continued disregard for Ukraine’s sovereignty” and that the activity was another example of “Russia’s aggressive actions against Ukraine.”

An FCDO spokesman said: “The UK government assesses that Russia’s Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU) was involved in this week’s distributed denial-of-service attack against the financial sector in Ukraine.

“This disruptive behavior is unacceptable: Russia must stop this activity and respect Ukraine’s sovereignty. We are firm in supporting Ukraine in the face of Russian aggression.”

The White House also blamed Russia for the cyberattack and warned of more significant disruption in the coming days.

Anne Neuberger, the Biden government’s deputy national security adviser for cyber and new technologies, said the United States was quick to attribute Tuesday’s attack to Russian military intelligence officials.

Neuberger said the attack, which took government websites and some major banks offline for most of the day, had a “limited impact” because Ukrainian officials were able to get their hands on their systems quickly.

He added that Russia could also lay the groundwork for more disruptive activities that could accompany an invasion of Ukraine.

Ms Neuberger said: “We hope that if Russia decides to proceed with a new invasion of Ukraine, we may see more destabilizing or destructive cyber activity, and we have been working closely with allies and partners to ensure we are prepared to expose that behavior. and respond.

He said the US publicly blamed the Kremlin for the need to “rapidly flag behavior” and there was no intelligence to suggest that the US would be a target for cyberattacks, but that it remains a concern because the banking system lacks a “cyber security system”. resilience” should be.

Mykhailo Fedorov, Ukraine’s Minister of Digital Transformation, described the attack as “the worst in the country’s history.”

But Roland Dobbins, chief DDoS engineer at cybersecurity firm Netscout, said that while the attacks certainly disrupted online banking, they were not very serious by global or historical standards.

He said, “Most DDoS attacks are successful because of a lack of preparation on the part of the defense,” adding that most commercial mitigation services designed to counter such attacks will likely be able to fend off Tuesday’s attacks.

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