'Expect the Worst': Cyberattack on Ukrainian Govt Websites, Probe Initiated

The hacked websites had a terrifying message in Ukrainian, Russian and Polish, for anyone who tried to access them.

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A cyberattack was launched on the Ukrainian government's websites on Thursday night, 13 January, with the message, "be afraid and expect the worst," Reuters reported.

Many government websites were inaccessible during the following morning.

The cyberattack affected some key websites, like the ones of the ministry of foreign affairs, the cabinet of ministers and the security and defence council.

In response, the Ukrainian government led by President Volodymyr Zelensky has initiated an investigation into the matter.

The hacked websites contained a terrifying message in Ukrainian, Russian and Polish, for anyone who tried to access them.

"Ukrainian! All your personal data was uploaded to the public network. All data on the computer is destroyed, it is impossible to restore it. All information about you has become public, be afraid and expect the worst. This is for your past, present and future."

A spokesperson for the Ukrainian foreign ministry told Reuters that it was too soon to guess the perpetrators of the cyberattack.

Russia, however, is as good a guess as any, given the geopolitical circumstances and the fact that the 2015 Ukraine power grid hack was attributed to Vladimir Putin's regime by most experts and analysts.

The cyberattack comes in the backdrop of Ukraine, the US, and NATO trying to deter Russia from the latter's military plans for the Russo-Ukrainian border.

Talks that were held between NATO and Russia did not result in a positive outcome, with the Russians threatening to deploy troops to Latin America if the NATO expanded eastwards by means of accepting Ukraine into its coalition.

(With inputs from Reuters)