Ukraine Energy Ministry suffers ransomware attack – Bitcoins demanded

Ukraine’s energy and coal ministry website has been hit by a ransomware attack demanding Bitcoin to recover encrypted files according to a report from Reuters citing Ukrainian cyber police spokeswoman Yulia Kvitko.

She confirmed that it was only the ministry site impacted, and not those of the state energy companies, commenting: “Ukrenergo, Energoatom – everything is okay with their sites, it’s only our site that does not work.”

Although a ransom was demanded, purely disruptive cyber-attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure have become commonplace, with the authorities blaming Russia, which routinely denies involvement.

Chris Doman, security researcher at AlienVault also points out that attacks against Ukraine have impersonated ransomware before, to cover their true aim of pure destruction, and that in many cases, energy companies have been a prime target but adds, “However, in this case – the evidence points to something more mundane.

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Source | scmagazineuk