Ukrainian cyber offense cripples Russian institutions and banks
Russian hacker groups are terrorizing companies worldwide. On Wednesday, Russians experienced these attacks firsthand. They could not log in to their favorite social networking service, VKontakte, and the websites of many banks, ministries, and offices were not working.
7:43 PM EDT, June 5, 2024
According to information provided by the portal Ukrayinska Pravda, the Ukrainian military intelligence HUR is responsible for carrying out the large-scale coordinated DDoS attack—the cyberattack aimed to disrupt the operations of state institutions and companies operating in Russia.
As a result of this operation, the work of many state institutions and private companies in the Russian Federation was severely disrupted. The source cited by Ukrayinska Pravda reports that the services of some banks, such as Sberbank and Alfa Bank, are currently unavailable. Additionally, there are severe problems with the functioning of the famous Russian social network VKontakte.
Russian media regulator Roskomnadzor claims that the disruptions result from a failure in the leading communication network. However, sources from Ukrayinska Pravda suggest that the real cause is a large-scale DDoS attack carried out by Ukrainian cyber warfare specialists.
Bank, office, and company websites were not working
From 6:00 AM, many Russian institutions, including the ministries of defense, finance, internal affairs, justice, industry and trade, energy, information technology and communications, and emergencies, had no access to internet services.
The Russian Federal Tax Service's website and online services were blocked. The Federal Customs Service said, "due to a massive DDoS attack on telecommunications operators, information exchange with participants in foreign economic activity is complicated."
Paralyzed systems
The United Aircraft Corporation, a Russian manufacturer of civilian and military aircraft, reported a lack of network access, which paralyzed its work for some time. The Gosoblako cloud storage servers also failed to operate.
Additionally, a source from Ukrayinska Pravda reports that the civil registry offices' online service was not working for several days in some regions of Russia. As a result, Russians are complaining about canceled weddings, one of the many issues resulting from this disruption.
