Ukraine Deputy Foreign Minister and Chief Digital Transformation Officer Anton Demokhin speaks to journalists in Jakarta on Oct. 21, 2023. (Bay Ismoyo, AFP via Getty Images/TNS)
(Tribune News Service) — A senior Ukrainian official said Russian cyberattacks are growing more sophisticated and have become daily occurrences aimed at disrupting vital infrastructure during wartime.
Deputy Foreign Minister Anton Demokhin, who’s also the ministry’s chief digital transformation officer, said hackers continue to target government bodies, security agencies and commercial businesses including financial institutions to try to disrupt services and acquire personal data. While Ukraine is largely able to deter the attempts, “they’re effective in the sense that we do put in a lot of effort” to prevent them, he said during an interview in Singapore.
“In this sense, yes, they take our time and attention and resources,” said Demokhin. Incidents have become more coordinated, with multiple hackers in various locations attacking different parts of the same infrastructure all at once, he said.
Other attackers have left sleeper viruses across information systems that become activated once an offensive operation begins, Demokhin said. “When you put it all together, you realize this is a new level of sophistication.”
Ukraine recorded 3,974 cyber incidents between January 2022 — a month before Russia began its invasion — and September of this year, with most coming from Russian attackers, according to government data seen by Bloomberg.
Cyberattacks surged three-fold early in the invasion. There was a shift in the first half of this year toward espionage operations by military units trying to obtain information submitted to the courts regarding Russian spies and evidence of war crimes.
The Kremlin and Russia’s military regularly deny any role in hacking operations.
Demokhin said he held bilateral meetings with U.S. Deputy National Security Advisor Anne Neuberger during his trip to Southeast Asia, where they discussed threat intelligence and cybersecurity technologies.
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