Cyberattacks, computer war between Russia and Ukraine can be just as deadly as that of weapons

Several organizations in Ukraine have been constantly affected by cyberattacks that seek to crash their systems, delete data or leak information since the war with Russia began. ORne of these attacks involved a new wiper-type malware called HermeticWiper that impacted hundreds of computersa research team from cybersecurity company ESET discovered.

The cyberattack came just hours after a series of distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks knocked out several Ukrainian websites on February 23, and occurred a few hours after the Russian invasion. According to ESET, elements of this malware suggest that the attacks had been planned for several months. That same day, another cyberattack with destructive intent targeting computers across the Ukrainian nation was discovered.

Then, on February 24, a second attack with destructive intent began against a Ukrainian government network using a wiper called IsaacWiper. ESET researchers also detected the use of HermeticRansom, a type of ransomware.

“(Wiper) what it did was remove the boot record of the devices. That means they can’t start up afterwards; you have to start completely from scratch and reinstall everything. This requires even more time to be able to return to full operational capacity.”, explained Richard Smith, director of the Institute of Cyber ​​Technology at Montfort University, in the United Kingdom, to BBC Mundo.

So far it has not been possible to verify that these attacks have been ordered by Russia and the Putin government has denied any involvement in them. Meanwhile, the Anonymous hacker group has also managed to penetrate Russian cybersecurity and took down certain official Kremlin websites for several hours.

Cyber ​​attacks are a powerful weapon, as they can paralyze a country’s infrastructure, affecting water, electricity and telecommunications services, among other factors.

For Smith, these types of attacks are very important in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, especially in the field of propaganda, “trying to reduce the spirit of the Ukrainian people.”

In January, the Ukrainian authorities stated in a statement that the goal of the cyberattacks “is not only to intimidate society,” but also to “destabilize the situation” with “false information about the vulnerability of the State’s IT infrastructure.” (I)