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Ukraine claims to be behind a cyber attack on Russia’s state media company, just in time for Russian President Vladimir Putin’s 72nd birthday.
The All-Russia State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company (VGTRK) told local Russian new agency Interfax that on 7 October , it suffered a cyber attack.
“On the night of October 7, VGTRK’s online services were subjected to an unprecedented hacker attack, but no significant damage was done to the media holding’s work,” the media company said, adding that there was no impact on broadcast and that “everything is operating normally, there is no significant threat”.
“The holding’s specialists are working to eliminate the consequences of this malicious interference.”
While the site is now back up, Reuters observed that the VGTRK website was not loading on Monday and that online access to the Rossiya-24 rolling 24-hour news channel was not available.
“503 Service Unavailable. No server is available to handle this request,” read the site, according to Reuters.
The Kremlin also announced the cyber attack but did not state who was behind the attack.
“Our state media holding, one of the largest, has faced an unprecedented hacker attack on its digital infrastructure,” spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told media.
“Specialists are working to find out all the circumstances, to understand where the traces left behind by those who organised this hacker attack on the critical infrastructure object lead.”
However, a Ukrainian government source has said that Kyiv’s hackers were behind the attack and that it was planned to line up with Putin’s birthday.
“Ukrainian hackers ‘congratulated’ Putin on his birthday by carrying out a large-scale attack on the all-Russian state television and radio broadcasting company,” the source told Reuters.
Russian cyber security firm F.A.C.C.T. also pointed out that information relating to the incident was posted to the official social media account of Sudo rm-RF, a pro-Ukrainian hacktivist group.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said that the attack fits the narrative of the West’s anti-Russian efforts and that the attack would be raised at the UN and UNESCO.
“Who is behind a specific attack will be determined by the competent authorities and departments, but we understand that when the collective West says that it is aiming to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia, this includes an attack on the media,” Minister Zakharova told Interfax.
“As for countermeasures, you understand perfectly well that copying criminal activity is to engage in it yourself.
“But this issue will be raised at international venues, both in the United Nations and in UNESCO, which is literally obliged to pay attention to this … and this topic will also be raised at other international venues.”
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