Ukraine concluded 'one of the largest cyberattacks' against Russia, source says
Ukraine's military intelligence (HUR) on July 30 finished a week-long massive cyberattack against Russia's financial institutions, telecommunications providers, and other targets, a source in the agency told the Kyiv Independent on July 31.
The wide-reaching DDoS campaign began on July 23 and disrupted the services of Russia's top banks, payment systems, social networks and messengers, government websites, and more. Russian media widely reported on the problems experienced by users across the country.
The source called it "one of the largest DDoS attacks on Russian internet infrastructure in history," adding that Ukraine managed to obtain a "massive volume of confidential data."
VTB, Raiffeisen Bank, Alfa Bank, Sberbank, Gazprombank, and Russia's central bank were among the targeted institutions.
"All the targets were supporting or financing (Russia's) armed aggression against Ukraine in one way or another," the source said.
According to the source, the targeted institutions did not manage to fully restore their services as of July 30, 7 p.m. local time.
"This is only a prelude to more interesting events," the source added without revealing details.
Cyberattacks have been widely used by both sides during the full-scale war.
Earlier in July, HUR claimed responsibility for a cyberattack on nearly 100 Russian websites that support the Kremlin's war effort. The attack took the sites offline and replaced their homepages with a picture of a bloody pig's head.
A large-scale cyberattack in late June left at least 250,000 consumers in occupied Crimea and other Russian-controlled territories without communication, a military intelligence source told the Kyiv Independent.
Nate Ostiller
