WhisperGate: Russia Responsible For Cyber Attacks On Ukraine

Ukraine's State Security Agency (SBU), says that it has found convincing evidence that the recent cyber attacks on Ukrainian government websites are linked to hacking groups associated to Russian intelligence services.

According to the authoritative Zero Day website, dozens of Ukraine government computers across different agencies were wiped using a malware known as WhisperGate, which deletes or overwrites  important system files, rendering systems unable to boot up or otherwise operate. 

This malware works in stages and may lie dormant until triggered. It has the potential to spread and infect  other connected computers, resulting on permanent data destruction.

The extent to which it has spread to other computer networks operated by the Ukraine government is presently unknown.

This follows a week of fruitless meetings between US and Russian diplomats in which the White House had warned that Russia perpetrate 'false flag' operations and attack its own allies in Ukraine as a pretext to invade. 

The cyber attack has been called a preparatory move in advance of  possible military action. The cyber attack affected around 70 government websites in Ukraine overnight on Friday 14th January, making it the largest cyber attack on Ukraine since the widespread blackouts of 2016 affecting the electricity grid. The Ukraine Foreign Ministry website was hacked and temporarily displayed a message prior to the attack a message appeared warning Ukrainians to "prepare for the worst". 

Ukraine has come under intense pressure from its neighbour, with a build-up of some 100,000 Russian troops near its borders. The US and NATO have offered support to Ukraine and while Russia has made no official statement about the attack, Ukraine's Ministry of Information ministry says that Russian media reported the attacks before Ukraine did.

• NATO said it would soon be signing an agreement with Ukraine on enhanced cyber cooperation, which would give it access to the alliance's malware information sharing platform.

• The US government says it it will provide Ukraine with whatever support it needs to recover from the attack.

At the start of Friday's attack, a message on the hacked websites was posted in three languages, Ukrainian, Russian and Polish. "Ukrainian! All your personal data has been uploaded onto the public internet," the message read. It continued: "This is for your past, your present and your future." The Polish language message contained grammatical errors and did not appear to have been written by a native speaker, according to a statement issued by Poland's government, which also blamed Russia for the attack.

Ukraine has been repeatedly targeted since 2014, when Moscow invaded and annexed Crimea and started a war in the eastern Donbas region. About 288,000 cyber-attacks took place in the first 10 months of 2021, according to official figures, with 397,000 in 2020. 

Ukraine says that it does does not have offensive cyber weapons to attack back, but the official said it was prepared to defend against more assaults from Russia. In winter 2015 suspected Russian hackers took out parts of the country’s power grid, which led to almost a quarter of a million Ukrainians losing power and heat. A repeat attack happened in 2016.

Zero Day:    CNN:    CBS:     Reuters:      BBC:     Guardian:      Sky:      France24:     NPR:      PBS:   

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