ESET and Microsoft helped fend off the cyberattack.
According to Ukraine, Russian military hackers attempted but failed to disrupt an energy provider in the country. According to the Computer Emergency Response Team of Ukraine (CERT-UA), an attempt to get access to computers connected to substations and delete all files on them was foiled. The infrastructure of the unknown supplier would have been shut down as a result. Customers in a densely populated area are said to be served by the company in question.
Previous cyberattacks on Ukraine’s electrical system have been blamed on Russia, but the country hasn’t been hacked in the same way since its invasion in February. In the aftermath of attacks ascribed to Sandworm, a putative wing of Russia’s GRU, some residents of Kyiv’s capital city lost power in 2014 and 2015.
- Western governments are planning to put more sanctions on Russia as a result of the Ukraine conflict.
- Real Madrid donate €1m to displaced population of Ukraine
Cybersecurity company ESET, which has been helping shore up Ukraine’s defenses, said Sandworm was behind the latest attempt as well. Sandworm is said to have used a new version of the Industroyer malware it employed to shut down Ukraine’s power grid in late 2015.
The latest attempted attack had been in the works for at least two weeks, according to ESET. Microsoft also helped ESET and Ukraine fend off the hackers, according to Viktor Zhora, a cybersecurity official in the country. According to CNBC, Zhora said the attackers did gain access to some systems and created disruption at one power facility, but they were snuffed out before any residents lost electricity.
