Ukraine’s Cyber attack on Russia’s Tax System
- CybersecurityNews
- January 9, 2024
- No Comment
Ukraine’s cyber attack on Russia’s Tax System – Tension continues between the two countries even after the return of some Russian tanks and military vehicles from the Ukraine border. On Tuesday, Ukraine said that the websites of the country’s Defence Ministry, armed forces and two state-owned banks were the victims of a cyber-attack whose roots may possibly be linked to Russia. This news of cyber-attack is coming at a time when heavy Russian military forces are continuously exercising on the borders of Ukraine and clouds of attack on Ukraine (Russia Ukraine Crisis) are looming. The cyber-attack targeted Oschadbank state savings bank and Private, the country’s two largest financial institutions. Although the services of both the websites were restored later on Tuesday, the military websites remained down for several hours. An error message was seen on the website of the Defence Ministry, in which it was written – ‘undergoing technical maintenance’.
The war between Russia and Ukraine has been going on for more than two months. Initially it was believed that Ukraine would not last long against Russia, but with the help of its allies, Ukraine is still giving competition to Russia. In such a situation, Russia has started conducting cyber-attacks along with ammunition. Microsoft company said in a report released on Wednesday that Russian government-backed hackers have recently carried out cyber-attacks on dozens of organizations in Ukraine and destroyed their data.
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Ukraine’s Cyber attack Conflict
The war between Russia and Ukraine has started from Thursday. Russia is continuously adopting an aggressive stance and is attacking Ukraine with bombs, missiles and rockets. But before this attack, Russia had also carried out a cyber-attack on Ukraine. Due to this attack, the websites of Ukrainian banks and government departments crashed. This was not Russia’s first cyber-attack. Even a week before this, Russia had targeted about 50 websites of Ukraine. Expert says that the malware through which Russia targeted Ukraine
Error message seen on the website of armed forces
A similar error message also appeared on the website of the armed forces. Earlier in January also, hackers had targeted dozens of Ukrainian websites. Many Ukrainian government websites were temporarily shut down following large-scale cyber-attacks. Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Oleg Nikolakakos had said that it was too early to say who was behind this attack. Russia is denying cyber attacks
He had said, ‘It is too early to reach any conclusion as the matters are under investigation but Russia has a long history of cyber-attacks against Ukraine.’ Russia has previously denied cyber-attacks against Ukraine. According to officials, the websites of the country’s Cabinet, seven ministries, treasury, National Disaster Service and state services related to passports and vaccination certificates were down due to hacking.
Biden gave strict warning
US President Joe Biden has given a strong warning to Russia. Joe Biden has clearly said that he does not want a conflict with Russia, but if Russia’s attack targets Americans in Ukraine, there will be a befitting reply. Biden said, ‘We are ready to respond decisively to the Russian attack on Ukraine. There is still a high possibility of a Russian attack. We do not want a direct confrontation with Russia; However, I am clear that if Russia targets Americans in Ukraine, we will be forced to respond.
Preparations have been going on for several months
Preparations for this attack have been done for the last several months. Vikram Thakur of cyber security firm Symantec has said that this software is spread on a large scale. He told, ‘We have seen its activity throughout Ukraine and Latvia.’ It is not clear who is behind this attack.
Russia accused on Ukraine’s Cyber attack
Russia has been accused of cyber-attacks many times before. However, Russia has denied these allegations. Cyber security experts are investigating software targeting Ukraine. He uploaded a copy of it to Alphabet’s crowdsourced cybersecurity site Virus Total so that its capabilities could be explored. Researchers found that this software has been digitally signed through a certificate. This certificate has been issued to Hermetic Digital Ltd. Since the operating system uses code-signing to verify the launch of any software. In this way, certificates are designed to avoid anti-virus protection. According to Brain Kime, VP of American cyber security firm Zero Fox, getting a certificate like this is not a big deal. The address of the company in whose name this certificate has been issued is one year old and it does not even have a website.
What is wiper malware? on Ukraine’s Cyber attack
Wiper malware attack is also known as Hermetic Wiper. The entire data of the system can be deleted through this malware. It is different from other malware and the data it deletes cannot be recovered. With this, hackers completely control the server of your system.
It took a long time to create this malware
According to experts, it would have taken about 2 months to prepare this malware. In this, hackers first installed Hermetic Wiper malware in computers. After this DDoS attack (Distributed denial-of-service) was done. During this time a data wiping software was also used.
FAQ’s
Yes, Ukraine has experienced multiple cyber attacks, with notable incidents targeting various sectors, including the power grid and government institutions.
As per the the report said, The hacking group of cybersecurity research circles by the moniker “Sandworm”, was able to cause a power cut in an unidentified area of Ukraine by tripping circuit breakers at an electrical substation at the same time as the missile strike.
Attributing cyber attacks to specific countries can be challenging, but China, Russia, and North Korea are often associated with a significant number of cyber attacks.