(LONDON) The United States and the United Kingdom accused Russia on Friday of being responsible for the latest cyberattacks that targeted several official Ukrainian military websites and two state-owned banks on Tuesday, attacks for which the Kremlin had denied any involvement.
Posted yesterday at 4:38 p.m.
We believe that the Russian state is responsible for the vast cyberattacks against Ukrainian banks this week,” said Anne Neuberger, White House adviser on hacking, amid heightened tensions in the crisis with the Russia around Ukraine.
“Disruptive and unacceptable” acts
The British government has for its part believed that Russian military intelligence (GRU) was involved in the attacks “against the financial sector in Ukraine”, said a spokesperson for the Foreign Office in a press release.
“This disruptive behavior is unacceptable, Russia must cease these activities and respect Ukrainian sovereignty,” the spokesperson continued, shortly after the United States detailed broader accusations against Moscow.
The UK statement stresses that the decision to “publicly attribute this incident underlines the fact that the UK and its allies will not tolerate any malicious cyber activity”.
The text specifies that the British national cybersecurity center believes that Russian military intelligence is “almost certainly” involved in the computer attack on Tuesday and Wednesday.
The Ukrainian authorities had pointed the finger at “the aggressor”, an expression generally used to designate Russia, after this cyberattack which had targeted, according to Kiev, the sites of the Ministry of Defense and the armed forces of the country, as well as the banks Privatbank and Ochtchabank .
The British Foreign Office has also announced the “temporary” relocation of its embassy in Ukraine from Kiev to Lviv, in the west of the country, amid fears of Russian invasion.
British diplomacy has called on British nationals to avoid non-essential travel to Belarus, as well as to the Moldovan region of Transnistria.