In Ukraine, on the night of January 13-14, a global hacker attack was carried out on the websites of ministries and the Cabinet of Ministers, which is reported by the Ukrainian Ministry of Education and Science on its official Facebook page.
“Due to the global attack on the night of January 13-14, 2022, the official website of the Ministry of Education and Science is temporarily disabled. While the work on troubleshooting continues and the SBU [Security Service of Ukraine] and the cyber police are working as well, please use the official web resources of the Ministry of Emergency Situations,” the statement says.
As the Telegram channel “Politics of the Country” notes, the website of the government, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Education and Science, the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food were attacked. There is also said with reference to the SBU that some other state websites and sources are blocked to avoid the spread of the attack and for saving the data.
As reported, threats against Ukrainians were posted on the resources, as well as pictures with the crossed-out coat of arms and the flag of Ukraine.
“Ukrainian! All your personal data has been uploaded to the public network. All data on the computer is destroyed, it is impossible to restore them. All information about you has become public, be afraid and wait for the worst. This is to you for your past, present, and future. For Volyn, for the OUN UPA, for Galicia, for Polesie and for historical lands,” the message says in Ukrainian, Russian, and Polish.
To date, these posts have been deleted. However, as a result of the attack, the websites of the Ukrainian ministries and some other departments became inaccessible. The public services website of Ukraine also stopped working.
Currently, the investigation is being conducted by the cyber police of Ukraine. It is unknown who is behind the attack for the moment, though the Ukrainian press has expectedly started to throw accusations to the Russian side.
According to the NV Ukrainian website referring to the New York Times, at the end of last year, the US and Great Britain sent specialists to Kiev to prepare the country for “possible cyberattacks from Russia”. According to the publication, “with the help of cyber attacks, Russia intends to present the President of Ukraine, Vladimir Zelensky, ‘inept and defenceless’, and possibly provide a pretext for an invasion.” There is no wonder the website states such things, as it also boasts its partnership with the Western mainstream media.
Moreover, trying so hard to frame Russia, Western powers even set a date of an alleged “Russian cyberattack” by themselves – the NYT reported in the mentioned above article that “Russia may be preparing cyberattacks aimed at the Ukrainian power grid and Ukrainian government agencies after Orthodox Christmas — at the end of the first week of January.”
This was announced by the US to explain its cyber warfare teams sent to Ukraine in December as so they had a reason – “concerns”, as they called it, that Russia could “potentially” possess a threat to Ukraine’s security.
“The United States and the United Kingdom secretly sent cyberwar experts to Ukraine in the hope of better preparing it for confrontation,” the NYT wrote.
As was specified at that time, US officials declined to describe the type of cyber teams that were sent to Ukraine while the UK government which also sent its team to Ukraine described its support as defensive in nature.
The newspaper quoted Senator Angus King, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, who said, “I don’t think there is the slightest doubt that if there is an invasion or another kind of invasion of Ukraine, it will start from cyberspace.”
Besides, the outlet writes that American representatives claim to be “on high alert” due to the approach of the Christmas holidays, assuming that if Russia “really undertakes a cyberattack, either as an independent action or as a harbinger of a physical attack, then most likely it will happen after Orthodox Christmas, at the end of the first week of January, according to sources with intelligence.”
So now it fully looks like it will be Russia to blame by Ukraine and the collective West for the hacker attacks committed this night. However, if all the cards point so actively and intensively on one side, does not it look like a staged move even though Ukraine’s allies try so hard to make it look “Russia’s guilt” obvious?
Ru-Main, 14.01.2022
