The governments of the U.S. and U.K. on Friday attributed the DDoS attacks against targets in Ukraine this week to Russian intelligence.
The administration of U.S. President Joe Biden and a U.K. government agency today attributed this week’s distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks in Ukraine to Russia, as tensions escalated in the region. The DDoS attacks against military and financial institutions in Ukraine on Tuesday were the “ largest ” in the country’s history, according to the Ukrainian government. The attacks affected targets including the websites of the Ministry of Defense and the Armed Forces of Ukraine, as well as the web services of Privatbank, Oschadbank, and Monobank. On Wednesday, the Security Service of Ukraine (SSU) said preliminary information suggested that in the DDoS attacks, “Russian special services may be involved.” Today, the U.S. deputy national security adviser for cyber and emerging technology, Anne Neuberger, said at the White House that intelligence suggests that Russia’s intelligence directorate, known as GRU, was behind the attacks. “We have assessed that Russia was responsible for the DDoS attacks that occurred earlier this week,” Neuberger said, according to a report in The Hill. Meanwhile, in the U.K., the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office reported that based on a technical analysis, the GRU is believed to have been involved in the DDoS attacks against targets in Ukraine this week.
