A number of Ukraine government websites has been attacked, receiving a cautionary message. According to the officials a “long record” of Russian cyber invasions against Ukraine has been pointed out.
A warning message showed up just before all the sites went offline. It reproduced both the Ukrainian flag and map being crossed out. A part of this message says:
“Ukrainians!…All information about you has become public, be afraid and expect worse.”
NEWS IN KYIV: Several Ukrainian government websites down due to a major a cyberattack. Below is the @MFA_Ukraine website now. It reads in part: "Ukrainians!…All information about you has become public, be afraid and expect worse." Sites of MOD and Education ministry also down. pic.twitter.com/3lbA06Q3Fl
— Christopher Miller (@ChristopherJM) January 14, 2022
Oleg Nikolenko, the foreign ministry’s spokesperson, said in a message to ‘The Guardian’:
“As a result of a massive cyber-attack, the website of the ministry of foreign affairs and other government agencies are temporarily down. Our specialists have already started restoring the work of IT systems and the cyber-police has opened an investigation.”
The attacks have been condemned by Nato’s secretary general Jens Stoltenberg and Josep Borrell – the EU’s top diplomat. The EU’s political and security committee and cyber units are planning to meet with the aim of deciding how to respond and to support Kyiv. He explained:
“We are going to mobilize all our resources to help Ukraine to tackle this. Sadly, we knew it could happen.”
According to him, it’s difficult to say who is the culprit and he will not blame anybody because at that moment he has no proof. Stoltenberg said that an agreement will be signed between Ukraine and Nato in order to give Kyiv access to Nato’s malware information sharing platform. Ann Linde, Sweden’s foreign minister, commented:
“We have to be very firm in our messages to Russia, that if there are attacks against Ukraine, we will be very harsh and very strong and robust in our response.”
The US Embassy in Moscow did not give an immediate response and did not comment on the situation.
