Six European Union Countries Send Cyber Security Experts To Help Ukraine

JAKARTA - Six European Union member states have sent a team of cybersecurity experts to Ukraine to help the country deal with cyber threats after Russia officially recognized two breakaway territories in eastern Ukraine.

Responding to requests from Ukraine on Monday, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland, Estonia, Romania, Croatia will send their previously formed expert teams to assist other EU countries, institutions, and partners to tackle cyber threats.

"Ukraine may need assistance dealing with certain incidents or support to test their infrastructure for security flaws," Lithuanian Deputy Defense Minister Margiris Abukevicius told Reuters.

According to the US and UK sides, Friday 18 February, Russian military hackers were suspected of being behind a spate of DDoS attacks that briefly took Ukrainian banking and government sites offline.

Russia itself has denied any role in the DDoS, which caused relatively limited disruption on Tuesday last week.

Britain's Defense Secretary, Ben Wallace, said on Monday that British cyber experts were working with Ukraine to help protect it from the activity of Russian hackers.