Ukraine Blames Russian Hackers for Christmas Power Outage

Ukraine officials are trying to pin the blame of recent power outages in the country's western regions on a cyber-attack carried out by Russian hackers.

The attack occurred during the past weekend and was caused by malware on the computer network of some of Ukraine's electricity supply companies.

To help it pass through security shields and maximize its damage, the malware attack was also timed with a telephone flood at the support departments of the electricity companies, flood that kept most of their staff busy.

Theories exist about a fake report from the Ukrainian side

All power outages affected only areas under the control of the Pro-West Ukranian government.

On the other hand, Russians said that Ukrainian government officials are trying to pin a regular power outage on Russia's well-known cyber-divisions, in an attempt to score PR points in international media.

SBU, Ukraine's Security Service put out a statement about the incident, but suspiciously, its website has been down all day. Here's a cached copy of the announcement.

First real-world cyber-attack on an electrical grid during an actual war

This is the first time when a cyber-attack on an electrical grid is used in an actual war, albeit an unofficial one, since Russia has not (yet) admitted its involvement in the conflict.

A week ago, reporters from Wall Street Journal uncovered a cyber-intrusion on the computer network of a New York state dam, perpetrated by Iranian hackers. The event took place in 2013 and did not have any serious consequences since the hackers were only after financial institutions.

Regardless if it was Russia behind the attack or not, or if the cyber-attack took place or it was just a simple screw up on the Ukrainian side, cyber-security experts can now analyze how the Ukraine's government and population answered to the event, and how these type of attacks can impact real-world war theaters.  

#НовиниЕнергетики "Причина отключений:вмешательство посторонних лиц в программный комплекс телеуправления" +Черновцыоблэнерго((( @vll1ua — НеТаОдеса (@vll1ua) December 24, 2015