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Security supremo accuses Russia of cyberattacks on Ukraine

The NSDC secretary asks for more money for cyber defence.

Security supremo accuses Russia of cyberattacks on Ukraine
Oleksandr Turchynov
Photo: Photo: Press service of the National Security Council

Ukrainian state agencies, critical sectors of infrastructure and the private sector for over a week have been exposed to large-scale cyberattack from Russia, the National Security and Defence Council Secretary Oleksandr Turchynov said in a statement.

"These attacks were pre-planned and coordinated from a single center, located in the Russian Federation," Turchynov said as reported by the NSDC website. The attacks were carried out from computer networks located in different countries, added Turchynov.

"Cybercriminals aimed to destabilize the financial and banking sector of Ukraine on the eve of the New Year that would lead to the breakdown of social benefits campaign, complicate the functioning of state institutions and block the budget process," he said.

Turchynov praised the efforts of cyber departments of the State Service of Special Communications and Protection of Information, the Security Service and National Police who ensured the prompt restoration of the functioning of affected computer systems.

NSDC secretary said the sites connected to the state system of cyber defence were not damaged, while a number of information resources of state agencies, not connected to this system, are still struggling to recover. Turchynov urged to increase funding in the 2017 state budget for cyber defence purposes.

The National Coordination Center for Cybersecurity is scheduled to discuss and adopt on Wednesday a detailed plan of action to increase the level of cyber defence.

The websites of the Ministry of Finance and the State Treasury Service has been blocked in the morning on December 6 due to coordinated professional hacker attack. As a result of the attack the network equipment was damaged, and payments have been suspended.

PFTS Stock Exchange has not been working from 6 to 13 December, for unknown reasons.

On December 13, the site Ministry of Defence has not worked for a few hours because of a hacker attack.

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