Ukraine's military intelligence service (GUR) was behind the large-scale DDoS attack that ‘paralysed’ the work of a number of Russian ministries and companies, a source in the agency told Kyiv Independent on 5 June.
"Roskomnadzor said on 3 June that several state websites were “partially inaccessible”, allegedly due to a failure of “sections of the main communication network”.
A source told Kyiv Independent that the failure was in fact due to a cyberattack.
"Ukrayinska Pravda reported that according to an anonymous military intelligence source, the attack was still ongoing.
The electronic services of the ministries of defence, finance, internal affairs, justice, industry, digital development and communications, and emergencies were unavailable as of the morning of 5 June, a source told UP.
The website of the Russian Ministry of Defence became available as of 13:30 on 5 June, Kyiv time, but a number of other government websites, including the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Ministry of Justice or the Ministry of Finance, remained inaccessible throughout the day.
According to the source, the cyberattack also targeted the website and other services of the Federal Customs Service. The Service reported temporary ‘complications in the exchange of information with participants in foreign economic activity’ after a ‘massive DDoS attack on telecommunications operators’.
The problems have also reportedly affected the United Aircraft Corporation, Sberbank and Alfa Bank, the VKontakte social network, as well as other services and companies.
Cyberattacks are becoming an increasingly common tool used by both sides of the Russian-Ukrainian war, the newspaper writes. In particular, one of the most devastating strikes by Russian hackers was an attack on the Ukrainian telecoms provider Kyivstar, which caused communication disruptions across the country in December 2023.
In turn, Ukrainian military intelligence or pro-Ukrainian hackers have carried out a number of cyberattacks on Russian companies and government agencies, sources in the Kyiv Independent agency said earlier.
Background. Meanwhile, the State Service for Special Communications and Information Protection of Ukraine has warned that hackers from Russia have stepped up attacks on the mobile phones of Ukrainian military personnel.