DDoS attacks launched on a regular basis, Ukraine claims

Dec 14, 2016 10:08 GMT  ·  By

Ukraine is the latest target of unknown hackers who attempted to take down the website of the defense ministry, according to local authorities.

A Reuters report citing the Ukrainian defense ministry reveals that the country recorded “regular” DDoS attacks, which local officials claim were supposed to take down the website and prevent the ministry from publishing announcements for the public.

“The purpose of the attacks was to prevent Ukraine's defence ministry from being able to inform the public,” spokesman Oleksandr Motuzyanyk was quoted as saying.

Furthermore, the spokesman revealed that the ministry was attacked several times in the latest months, but its operations were not impacted every time. It’s not known, however, how many DDoS attacks were successful, as no specifics were provided.

At this point, it’s also not known who was behind the latest attack, but Motuzyanyk claims that all services are working normally and an investigation continues.

Russian hackers?

Given the fact that the website was supposed to host announcements regarding the separatist conflict that involves Russia, many believe that these cyberattacks were launched by Russian hackers, although this is yet to be confirmed.

Russia itself claimed it was attacked regularly in the last months by hackers working for a foreign intelligence agency. Russian authorities, however, provided no specifics on these claims.

It did reveal that signs of attacks were found on servers belonging to a Ukrainian hosting firm whose computers based in the Netherlands were prepared to take down Russian websites. The Ukrainian firm, however, denied these claims, explaining that it investigated its systems in the Netherlands and found no evidence of any possible attack prepared against Russia.

Russia said foreign hackers wanted to take down its financial services, trying to compromise systems belonging to local banks. The country explained, though, that all attacks were blocked and no bank suffered breaches.