A massive cyber attack has hit Ukrainian government websites. It is not known for a long time who is behind it.
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Several ministries reported problems with the website on Friday morning, including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Education, reports the news agency AFP.
It is not known who is behind it, but Ukrainian authorities are already pointing to Russia. The police authorities are investigating the case.
– Be afraid
On several of the ministry’s websites, messages were published with messages that Ukrainians should be afraid.
– Ukrainians! All your personal data has been uploaded online. All information on the computer is corrupted, it is impossible to recover it, it says in a message that appears on hacked websites.
The messages was written in Ukrainian, Polish and Russian.
– All information about you has been published. Be afraid and expect the worst. This is for your past, present and future, it is further stated in the cryptic message.
The content of the website has not changed and no personal information has been leaked, according to Ukrainian authorities.
The authorities report that many of the websites are already up and running again around 08.45 Norwegian time.
Pointing to Russia
It is too early to conclude anything about the attack, but historically there have been a large number of cyber attacks against Ukraine from Russia, says Oleg Nikolenko, spokesman for the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry. Russia has previously denied involvement in several cyber attacks.
The border between Ukraine and Russia is currently tense. The last few weeks have been a series of meetings between NATO, the United States, Ukraine and Russia to de-escalate the situation. So far, the meetings and talks have not progressed.
Russia wants, among other things, that Ukraine will be denied membership in NATO and that the defense alliance will roll back several decades of enlargement in Europe, something the United States has flatly rejected, according to Reuters.
Embassy pages down
The Ministry of Emergency Management and the Prime Minister’s website have also been down, and several embassies report that the website is down, including the Ukrainian embassy in Sweden. VG has also not been able to enter the Ukrainian embassy in Norway websites Friday morning.
According to Ukrainian authorities, a number of websites have been temporarily shut down to prevent the attack from spreading.
According to journalist Kim Zetter, 15 websites in Ukraine have been affected. They all have in common that they use the same publishing system, according to Zetter, which states anonymous sources.
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