Russian cyberattacks fail to affect Ukrainian networks

The cyber attacks russians so far they have struggled to successfully bring down the critical national infrastructure of Ukraineaccording to government officials.

While they are aware of Russian intent to disrupt or infiltrate Ukrainian systems, according to officials, they have continued to function and Ukraine has mounted a strong defense.

Many denial-of-service attacks targeting Ukraine are low in sophistication and impact, the people said, asking not to be identified because the information is private. The country’s experience fending off major cyberattacks since 2015 may have helped it prepare for recent attempts, they added.

The destructive “cleaner” malware seen in Ukraine is more insidious, and officials said they are on alert for its appearance outside the country. In the hours before the Russian invasion, some Ukrainian government agencies were attacked with the software, which deleted data stored on infected computers.

More aggressive takedowns or network attacks may not fit Russian objectives, they added, and Russia could even leave the broadband network active on its own to gather intelligence.

More than 400,000 people have volunteered to help the Ukrainian government, using digital means to disrupt Russian military and government targets, according to a Ukrainian cybersecurity official.

Although cyberattacks inside Ukraine have had mixed success, there have been significant attacks on other targets. US, French and Ukrainian intelligence agencies are investigating an apparent cyberattack against ViaSat Inc., Reuters reported.

The UK is now also investigating the attack, according to people familiar with the situation.

It is one of the highest-profile cyber incidents seen during the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and could be a “spin-off” of the conflict, said the officials, who asked not to be identified due to confidential matters.

It is not known if the hack is attributed to Russian activity.

ViaSat previously said it believed a partial network outage affecting customers in Ukraine was “caused by a cyber event.” Representatives for the California-based company did not immediately respond to a request for comment outside normal business hours.

French internet provider Nordnet also said the incident had disrupted some of its services.