According to the intelligence available to the publication, Russian hackers can disrupt the work of critical enterprises in Ukraine to destabilize the country, or in a large-scale military operation.
Photo: Markku Ulander / TASS
Russian “government hackers” have likely penetrated Ukrainian military, energy and other critical computer systems extensively in order to gather intelligence, as well as the possibility of disrupting these systems. About this with reference to US intelligence data informs newspaper The Washington Post.
According to a source in the US presidential administration who provided intelligence, Moscow already has the ability to disrupt a number of critical Ukrainian enterprises in the fields of electricity, transport, finance and telecommunications. He noted that this could be done to destabilize within Ukraine, or at the start of a large-scale military operation.
“We don’t know if they intend [россияне] do it. But we are working with Ukraine to strengthen their cyber defenses,” the official said.
Since the beginning of the year, Ukraine has already experienced several attacks on government websites. In mid-January, hackers attacked at least 70 websites, including the portals of the Cabinet of Ministers, the Ministry of Education and Science, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Sports and other departments. On the pages of departments, unknown people posted messages in Ukrainian, Russian and Polish. They urged Ukrainians to “be afraid and expect the worst.” The Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine stated that Russia was involved in the cyber attack.