Russia could attack Ukraine also in cyberspace. We explain what a DDoS attack is

During the night from Wednesday to Thursday, Ukraine had to deal not only with the Russian attack from land and air, but also aggression in cyberspace. Many sites, incl. government and public administration did not work or still does not work. Cyber ​​attacks also targeted Ukrainian banks, and most of them

As the Minister of Digital Transformation Mykhailo Fedorov admitted, Ukraine had to defend itself against cyber attacks “all night”. The politician did not admit who was behind the attacks, but it is not difficult to guess that this was the introduction to Russia’s military aggression, which began just a few hours later. It is possible that the cyber attacks were aimed at cutting off the Ukrainian people from official government information and making it difficult for the minor neighbor to communicate and defend themselves against the aggressor.

According to reports, “cyber attackers” primarily used DDoS attacks. We explain what such an attack is and how it works.

“Putin’s soldiers” also attack in cyberspace

DDoS, or distributed denial of service, is an attack that blocks access to various IT services for ordinary users. It is relatively simple to implement, although it requires the use of significant resources, i.e. a large number of computers.

More precisely, the attack consists in “flooding” the victim’s server with a huge number of inquiries (eg massive attempts to open a website) from many computers simultaneously. The goal is to exceed the capabilities of the victim’s servers, eventually leading to a break in access to the service by third parties.

Typically, thousands of computers that have been “hijacked” with malware, for example as a result of previous hacking attacks, and incorporated into the network are used for this purpose. Often these are devices belonging to private, unaware users.

Importantly, a DDoS attack is the more difficult for an attacker, the more possibilities the victim’s service has. It usually ends after a few hours, when the number of queries from the attacking computers drops or the victim can cope with the increased traffic.

It is worth mentioning that DDoS is a common course of action aimed at blocking access to websites also by “civil” cybercriminals. It is also often used by them to blackmail companies that, out of fear, sometimes decide to pay the ransom.