Microsoft made this discovery announced this Sunday Malware There is a “high risk” of targeting (malicious code) government and private computer networks in Ukraine and leaving them “unusable”.
The Microsoft Threat Intelligence Center (MSTIC) first identified the malicious code last Thursday, according to a report in The New York Times today.
It is a kind of hijacking program that is considered “destructive” and is designed to make infected devices unusable.
“The MSTIC has not been able to assess the scope of the identified destructive actions, given the magnitude of the verified intrusions, but Microsoft believes that these actions pose a significant risk to any government agency or organization with systems in Ukraine,” he said.
Ukraine says it has evidence of Russian intervention
The Ukrainian government on Sunday blamed Russia for the cyber-attacks that hit several Ukrainian state Internet networks on Thursday and Friday nights.
“Today we have all the evidence pointing out that Russia is behind the cyber attack. Moscow is waging a hybrid war and is actively recording its strengths in the field of information and cyberspace, “said a statement from Ukraine’s Ministry of Digital Transformation.
The Ukrainian ministry points out that the attack, which affected about 70 official government pages, is being investigated by the Special State Communications Service, Ukraine’s Security Service and the Cyber Police, but so far all suspicions point to Russia.
“Russian cyber forces are often working against the United States and Ukraine, using technology to provoke the political situation,” the Ukrainian government said in a statement.
The cyber attack affected about 70 Ukrainian websites, including websites of ministers, ministries and emergency services.
On these pages, the attackers posted threatening advertisements in Ukrainian, Russian and Polish.
The EU will do all it can to help Kiev
The European Union (EU) on Friday condemned the cyber attack and said the community would “mobilize all resources” to help Kiev deal with an already feared attack.
“Unfortunately, we already expected this to happen. Of course, since we have no evidence, we can not point to anyone, but we can imagine who is behind the cyber attack,” said European diplomat Joseph Borel at the entrance to the informal meeting of foreign ministers in Europe. Union 27, among others, was marked by tensions between Ukraine and Russia in the east.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg condemned the cyber attack and announced that the Atlantic Alliance would sign an Internet cooperation agreement with Kiev in the coming days.
After being part of the former Soviet Union, Ukraine became independent in 1991 after the dissolution of the Moscow-controlled camp.
In 2014, following the Orange Revolution that led to the ouster of pro-Moscow President Viktor Yanukovych, Russia invaded and annexed Crimea from the Ukrainian peninsula.
Since then, Moscow has reportedly sponsored a guerrilla war in the industrial region of Donbass in eastern Ukraine, which has killed more than 13,000 people and displaced 1.5 million people, according to UN figures.
In recent months, Russia has deployed 100,000 troops and heavy weapons along the Ukrainian border, raising fears of a new offensive against the country in Kiev and the West, an objective Moscow has denied.
The Ukraine border crisis has been the subject of separate talks this week between Russia and the United States, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).
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