Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense said it had been hit with a cyberattack on Tuesday amid the threat of a military incursion from Russia.
The Ukrainians were likely hit with a distributed denial-of-service attack, experiencing an excessive amount of requests per second, the ministry said on social media.
The Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security, another government agency, said the website of the armed forces of Ukraine was also attacked, as were a couple of banks.
“It is not ruled out that the aggressor used tactics of little dirty tricks because its aggressive plans are not working out on a large scale,” the statement read, according to Reuters.
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This is not the first time this year that Ukrainian government agencies were targeted with a cyberattack.
Seven other government agencies, including the Treasury, the State Emergency Service, and others, were hit with a cyberattack last month that left a message that read in part: “Be afraid and expect the worst. This is for your past, present, and future.”
“According to an investigation by the Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security, the first data suggests that the attack was carried out by the Russian Federation,” the Ukrainian Information Policy Ministry said in a statement. “This is not the first time or even the second time that Ukrainian Internet resources have been attacked since the beginning of the Russian military aggression.“
The latest cyberattack occurred the same day Russian President Vladimir Putin indicated there was a diplomatic way out of the standoff and possible invasion. The comments, which were met with skepticism from Ukrainian and U.S. officials, came a day after John Kirby, the Pentagon spokesman, told reporters that Putin had “added” to his military capabilities over the weekend.
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While hoping for a diplomatic solution, President Joe Biden has deployed roughly 6,000 troops to Europe. Another 8,500 U.S. service members remain on “heightened alert” for a deployment should NATO call up their forces. The troops will not enter Ukraine to fight Russia should an invasion occur, and they won’t enter the country even to help Americans escape. They are preparing to help evacuate Americans once they cross into a neighboring country.
