Ukraine Fights Cyberattacks Amidst Russian Invasion: Government Websites Under DDoS Attack

While Ukraine is already trying to fight off Russia's invasion, it also faces cyber attacks as its government websites are now under fire from a DDoS attack. In addition, authorities expressed the intensification of "phishing attacks on public authorities and critical infrastructure."

Russian President Vladimir Putin Ordered 'A Special Operation'

Just recently, as reported by The New York Times, Russian President Vladimir Putin has just ordered "a special operation" which now allows the country's armed forces to start moving into Ukraine.

Unsuspectingly, the attack stretched more than just military forces as Ukraine was also faced with "major internet disruptions." Before the attack, Ukraine's State Service for Special Communications and Information Protection gave a statement saying, "government websites were under a DDoS attack.

Ukraine Attacked by Distribution Denial of Service Attack

The DDoS, or Distribution Denial of Service, resulted in users not being able to access "critical sites" amidst the crisis. According to the story by TheNextWeb, authorities noted that phishing attacks directed to "public authorities and critical infrastructure" as well as the widespread push of malicious software and "attempts to penetrate private and public sector networks" to push destructive actions have all intensified.

The authorities have advised citizens to back up any "critical information" and start isolating workstations that aren't too important at the moment. In addition, ESET, a security firm, did its research and noted that thousands of Ukrainian computers were being attacked by malware.

'Data Wiper Malware' Found Trying to Attack Ukrainians

The researchers were even able to find "data wiper malware" that was programmed to corrupt data as well as take over servers. As of the moment,, the attack, however, is still "not being attributed to a particular threat actor."

A certain agency that tracks internet disruptions globally called Netblocks also noted that internet services in Kharkiv were disrupted. To add, Kharkiv is Ukraine's second-biggest city and the internet disruption happened shortly after the attack by Russian forces.

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Cloudflare, an infrastructure company, also noted that they had seen "a small uptick in cyberattacks" directly against Ukrainian government websites. With that, the attack stretches from malware and phishing attacks and covers misinformation.

Telegram, a popular app being used in both Russia and Ukraine, has also been used in misinformation attacks, but on top of the messaging app, outlets coming from both countries, as per The Next Web, are "freely tweeting doctored info masquerading as news."

As per the publication, the misinformation could even "lead to confusion regarding the situation."

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Written by Urian B.