Ukraine Exposed to Russian Cyber Attacks... Will 'NotPetya' Resurface?

Concerns Over Increased Hacker Activity in Case of Military Invasion

Cyberattack (Photo by Getty Images)

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hyunjung] As Russia deploys more than 100,000 troops near the Ukraine border amid growing concerns of invasion, the Kyiv government and experts are raising the possibility of Russian cyberattacks.

On the 13th (local time), the Financial Times (FT) reported this citing views from local and external experts. Viktor Zhora, a senior official of Ukraine's cybersecurity agency, stated, "We expect an increase in attacks on systems," adding, "More serious incidents are anticipated, but we do not know when they will occur."

Andrey Soldatov, a Russian security expert and researcher at the European Policy Analysis Center, said, "Russian hackers are becoming increasingly skilled." He explained, "They have about eight years of experience since 2014," and "Ukraine is often a target of their hacking attempts."

Russian hackers accessed Ukraine's vote-counting system the day before the 2014 general election, destroying electronic records and forcing votes to be counted manually. The following year, cyberattacks caused power outages in western Ukraine and parts of the capital Kyiv, which are also attributed to Russian hackers.

In 2017, they also destroyed 10% of Ukraine's computer systems through the NotPetya ransomware attack. According to U.S. estimates, the ransomware attack is considered one of the worst cyberattacks ever, causing over $10 billion in losses to companies worldwide.

Recently, Microsoft revealed that a group called APT28, linked to Russian security services, has targeted the Ukrainian government and military offices since October 2021 for the purpose of "information gathering."

Ukraine is struggling to respond due to a lack of cybersecurity expertise in the public sector, weak regulations, limited response capabilities, and insufficient cooperation among various agencies.