An "unprecedented" distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) cyberattack targeting the website of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry was ongoing on Wednesday, according to an update from the ministry. The websites of the Defense Ministry and Ukrainian Armed Forces, as well as those of Ukrainian banks Privatbank and Oschadbank, were first attacked on Tuesday, according to the Ukrainian government's Center for Strategic Communications. The attack comes amid heightened tensions between Russia and Ukraine.
Users of the two banks reported issues with the apps and certain internet banking operations. Privatbank assured customers that there is no threat to their funds. Later in the evening, the website for Ukraine's Security Service and other government websites experienced disruptions as well, reportedly due to a cyberattack.
The National Police of Ukraine announced on Tuesday night that they had opened a criminal investigation into the cyberattacks at the request of one of the state-owned banks.
The State Service of Special Communications and Information Protection of Ukraine stated on Wednesday that it saw a "trace" of foreign intelligence services in the cyberattacks.
The attackers found vulnerabilities in the code of the site itself, instead of conducting a traditional DDoS attack, according to the Defense Ministry. All traffic to the site is now being directed through an additional security service located in the US. The site may continue to suffer from disruptions for "some time" until updates to the DNS servers are completed, the ministry added.
NetBlocks, an organization that monitors cybersecurity and internet governance, confirmed a loss of connectivity to Ukraine's State Savings Bank, impacting ATM and banking services. The organization reported that the services impacted by the attack had largely returned by Wednesday morning.
⚠️ Confirmed: Real-time network data show a loss of connectivity to #Ukraine's State Savings Bank, impacting ATM and banking services; disruptions also reported on Ministry of Defence and Armed Forces networks; incident comes amid heightened tensions with Russia pic.twitter.com/QMbPPpCzaV
— NetBlocks (@netblocks) February 15, 2022
The White House on Tuesday said it is aware of reports of cyber attacks in Ukraine and is offering support to Kiev in the investigation of and response to the denial-of-service incidents.
On January 14, Ukrainian government websites were hacked and replaced with a message in Ukrainian, Polish and Russian saying "be afraid and wait for the worst." A malware attack targeted government, non-profit and information technology websites in Ukraine the day before. Ukraine blamed Russia for the attacks, although Russia denied the allegations.
Ukrainian officials said on Sunday that Russia was stepping up a destabilization campaign involving cyberattacks, economic disruption and fake bomb threats, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Last week, Reuters reported that the European Central Bank was preparing banks for a possible Russian-sponsored cyberattack amid the tensions between Russia and Ukraine.
Reuters contributed to this report.