US intelligence community assessing information on cyberattack on Ukraine: Defence Secy

US Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin has said that the US intelligence community is gathering details regarding the cyberattack on Ukrainian state and bank websites. Austin highlighted that before any attack they expect to see "cyber attacks, false flag activities" and "increasing rhetoric in the information space." Addressing a press conference at North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) headquarters in Brussels, Austin said that if someone conducts cyberattacks against the US, the administration will hold the element responsible. 

"In terms of confirming whether or not this was Russia that was behind this, we -- again, the -- the intelligence community continues to assess what happened there," Lloyd Austin said in the press conference. 

Around 10 Ukrainian websites targeted in cyber attack 

Earlier on Tuesday, a series of cyberattacks affected the websites of the Ukrainian army, the defence ministry and major banks offline, AP reported citing Ukrainian authorities, AP reported. The cyber-attacks resulted in 10 Ukrainian websites being unreachable and these included the defence, foreign and culture ministries and Ukraine’s two largest state banks.

Victor Zhora, a top Ukrainian cyberdefense said that they do not have information regarding the disruption actions "that (could) be hidden by this DDoS attack," as per AP. Customers at Ukraine’s largest state-owned bank, Privatbank, and Sberbank faced problems in online payments and operating apps of banks. Ukraine alleged Russia of carrying out the cyber attack that targeted banks and state websites, The Guardian reported.

The cyber attack targeting Ukrainian websites came amid the time of escalated tensions between Ukraine and Russia over troops build-up near Kyiv's international border. 

Russia denies carrying out cyber attack against Ukrainian websites 

The allegations of conducting cyber attacks targeting Ukrainian state and bank websites were denied by Russia. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov insisted that they were not aware about anything related to the cyber attack, as per the Guardian report. Furthermore, Peskov stated that Ukraine blames Russia for everything, however, they have no links with the cyber attack. Reportedly, Russia has been alleged of being responsible for cyberattacks against Ukraine since the war between the two countries in 2014.  

Inputs from AP

Image: AP