Russia has significantly escalated cyberattacks on Ukraine’s critical infrastructure and government agencies since invading the country in February 2022, Bloomberg reported, citing a senior Ukrainian official.
Russian cyberattacks are growing more sophisticated and have become daily occurrences aimed at disrupting vital infrastructure during wartime, Anton Demokhin, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine for Digital Development, Digital Transformation and Digitalization. said.
According to Demokhin, Russian hackers continue to target government bodies, security agencies, and businesses, including financial institutions, to disrupt services and steal data.
While Ukraine has largely been able to thwart the attacks so far, “they’re effective in the sense that we do put in a lot of effort,” to prevent them, Demokhin said. “In this sense, yes, they take our time, attention, and resources.”
Demokhin described the attacks as increasingly coordinated, with groups of hackers in different locations simultaneously targeting various parts of the same infrastructure. Other attackers have planted “sleeper viruses” across systems, waiting to be activated when Russia launches an offensive operation.
“When you put it all together, you realize this is a new level of sophistication,” Demokhin said.
According to Ukrainian government data seen by Bloomberg, the country recorded nearly 4,000 cyber incidents from January 2022 to September 2023, most attributed to Russia.
Attacks surged threefold after Russia invaded in late February but later shifted toward espionage operations trying to obtain data on Russian spies and alleged war crimes.
The Kremlin regularly denies conducting hacking operations.
Demokhin said he discussed threat intelligence and cybersecurity defenses with US Deputy National Security Advisor Anne Neuberger during meetings in Southeast Asia.
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