Ukraine warns of more malware attacks after Kyiv airport hit
The country’s security service declared it found malicious code created to take control of or destroy computer systems on the networks of several energy companies. The malware is similar to that which attacked three power utilities in late December.
Analysts warn cyber attacks could be a new tactic in Russia’s aggression against Ukraine’s pro-western government, following the annexation of Crimea, support for separatists in eastern regions and engagement in a trade war.
While the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem declined to comment, representatives of Jewish bodies in both mainland Ukraine and Crimea issued strong and conflicting statements on the matter.
Irina Kustovska, a spokeswoman for the Ukrainian infrastructure ministry, said the ministry will review anti-virus databases in companies that are under its responsibility.
“On January 15th specialists discovered that one of the work stations at Boryspil airport was infected with the Black Energy virus”, said Andriy Lysenko, a spokesman for Ukraine’s military. He said there has been no damage, and the malware was detected early in the airport’s system.
Many of these Russian cyberattacks are believed to have been connected to a malicious software platform called “BlackEnergy” – Ukranian authorities will now investigate whether the airport attack was linked to this platform as well. Experts have described the incident as the first known power outage caused by a cyber attack.
On December 23rd, electricity was cut for six hours to about 80,000 people in and around Ivano-Frankivsk, a city of some 230,000 people about 200km from the Polish border.
“The report says the command and control server is in Russian Federation: it’s normal to be able to compromise locations around the world and use, so just because the IP address says Russian Federation means very little for attribution”, Robert M. Lee, a former US Air Force cyber warfare operations officer and CEO of Dragos Security, told Motherboard in a Twitter message.