Ukraine Friday blamed Russia for a major cyberattack on crucial government databases.
Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Olha Stefanishyna wrote on Facebook earlier on Friday that the “largest external cyberattack on [the] state registers of Ukraine in recent times” had taken place.
“It is already clear that the attack was carried out by the Russians with the aim of disrupting the work of the critically important infrastructure of the state,” Stefanishyna said.
The cyberattack took place while Russian forces hit Kyiv with a huge ballistic missile attack, as Russian leader Vladimir Putin’s grinding multiyear assault on Ukraine shows no signs of letting up.
The group claiming to be responsible for the attack said in a post on the Telegram channel “XakNet Team” that it had also targeted backup servers in Poland. POLITICO has not been able to verify that claim.
“The enemy is trying to use this situation in its information operations to sow panic among citizens of Ukraine and abroad,” Stefanishyna wrote about the cyber warfare.
As a result of the attack, the Unified and State Registers were temporarily suspended, Stefanishyna said. State registries are government records of information like people’s civil status and property rights.
The attack has not affected the functioning of other services, she said. Russia has hit Ukraine with constant cyberattacks during the war, including on energy infrastructure.
Ukrainian specialists are working to restore access to the databases, prioritizing registers for citizens’ civil status, legal entities and real estate rights, Stefanishyna said. That should take about two weeks, she said.
Google’s cyber intelligence arm said in September 2022 that it was “moderately” confident that the hacking group had coordinated its work with Russian military intelligence.
Veronika Melkozerova contributed to this report.
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