US And UK Accuse Russian Military Hackers For DDoS Attacks On Ukrainian Banks

JAKARTA - The governments of the United States and Britain, accused Russian military hackers or hackers of being behind a series of DDoS attacks that briefly took Ukrainian banking and government sites offline on Friday, February 18.

The US national security representative, Anne Neuberger, told reporters at the White House that Washington was seeking to hold Russia accountable for its cyber aggressive actions.

"Russia likes to move in the shadows and relies on lengthy attribution processes. With that in mind, we moved quickly to attribute DDoS attacks. We believe the Russian government is responsible for the widespread attack on Ukrainian banks this week," Neuberger was quoted as saying by Reuters.

Neuberger said Americans have data showing that infrastructure connected to the Russian military agency, commonly known as the GRU, "seems to transmit high volumes of communications to IP addresses and domains based in Ukraine."

In a simultaneous announcement, British officials also said the GRU was "almost certainly involved" in DDoS, which works by flooding targeted websites with firehose data.

"The attack demonstrates a continuing disregard for Ukraine's sovereignty," the UK's Office of the Commonwealth and Foreign Development (FCDO) said in a statement. "This activity is another example of Russia's aggressive actions against Ukraine. This disruptive behavior is unacceptable."

While Saturday, February 19 the Russian side had denied any role in the DDoS, causing relatively limited disruption the previous Tuesday.

But Kyiv has blamed Moscow for the DDoS amid heightened tensions since Russia began deploying troops near the border. This raises concerns that Russia is planning to invade Ukraine. The Kremlin has denied its plans to push deeper into the country.

Neuberger said that while the denial of service had a "limited impact," the recent spate of malicious digital activity could be the start of "more disruptive cyberattacks that accompany a potential further invasion of Ukrainian sovereign territory."

Russia on Saturday, February 19 again rejected US accusations that it was responsible for cyberattacks on Ukrainian banking and government websites as baseless.

"We categorically reject the baseless statements of the government and note that Russia has nothing to do with the events mentioned and in principle has never carried out and has not carried out any 'evil' operations in cyberspace," an official from the Russian Embassy in the United States said on Twitter- his.