Hackers of Russia's military intelligence agency (GRU) could be behind a cyberattack on Ukraine's government services, Volodymyr Karasteliov, the acting cybersecurity chief of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), said at a press conference on Dec. 20.
In the largest cyberattack in recent months, several government services were targeted on Dec. 19, including state registers the Justice Ministry oversees, Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration and Justice Minister Olha Stefanishyna said.
Officials say that the cyberattack had been prepared for several months, without providing further details. Ukraine launched a criminal investigation.
Stefanishyna did not specify which registers had been targeted. Later at a press conference, she said the cyberattack did not affect other state information systems. All state registers are currently suspended.
"All the Justice Ministry's data has been saved. Recovery is underway. Registers and all data will be restored. It is a matter of time," Stefanishyna added.
Karasteliov said that the SBU could not yet rule out the possibility of a data leak.
Russia has regularly targeted Ukrainian companies and government institutions with cyberattacks since the onset of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. In August, a massive Russian cyberattack targeted Monobank, one of Ukraine's largest banks.
Tim Zadorozhnyy
(Updated: )
