Ukrainian ISP suffers 'massive cyberattack'

Et bilde av et tastatur der Enter-knappen har påmalt et russisk flagg, med en liten gullbjørn stående på tasten. (Image credit: Shutterstock / Aleksandra Gigowska)

Ukraine suffered a major cyberattack earlier this week, bringing down internet connectivity in the country to almost a tenth of its pre-war levels.

According to a tweet posted by the State Service of Special Communication and Information Protection (SSSCIP) of Ukraine, the attack was launched against the internet service provider (ISP) Ukrtelecom, by none other than Russia, and it was “massive”.

The same tweet said the attack was “neutralized” and that the ISP was resuming offering its services to the citizens of Ukraine. The precise nature of the attack remains unclear.

Resuming operations

However, it’s not that simple. The resumption of services will need to be done gradually, as the attack targeted the country’s core IT infrastructure.

"In order to preserve its network infrastructure and to continue providing services to Ukraine's Armed Forces and other military formations as well as to the customers, #Ukrtelecom has temporarily limited providing its services to the majority of private users and business-clients,” the SSSCIP said in a separate tweet.

Yesterday, SSSCIP Chairman Yurii Shchyhol described it as “the first in the human history cyberwar”.

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In December last year, meanwhile, Special Russian Presidential Representative for International Cooperation in Cybersecurity and Director of the Foreign Ministry International Security Department, Andrey Krutskikh, said full-scale military activities were taking place in cyberspace.

Giving a speech at the 9th All-Russian congress of political scientists held at MGIMO University, he said: “The war in cyberspace is underway and unfolding very intensively. No matter how hard we may try to say that all this is disguised and that it isn’t that war or this war, in actual fact, military activities in cyberspace are in full swing."

Knowing that the internet infrastructure will be targeted by the Russians, the Ukrainian diplomats asked Starlink’s Elon Musk for help, and the CEO complied.

Numerous satellite dishes were distributed across the country, to help keep Ukraine online, while Musk also said the company was working on mobile satellite dishes which would make it more difficult for Russian invaders to target specific devices.

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Via ZDNet

Sead is a seasoned freelance journalist based in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. He writes about IT (cloud, IoT, 5G, VPN) and cybersecurity (ransomware, data breaches, laws and regulations). In his career, spanning more than a decade, he’s written for numerous media outlets, including Al Jazeera Balkans. He’s also held several modules on content writing for Represent Communications.