On August 16, the Ukrainian nuclear operator was the target of a Russian cyberattack, “the most powerful” since the beginning of the conflict. The Russian “people’s cyber army” used 7.25 million bots to make the Energoatom site inaccessible.
While the war between Russia and Ukraine is still in full swing, all means are good to bend the adversary, including cyberattacks. Specialists in the field, the Russians have once again struck. On August 16, the official website of Energoatom, the Ukrainian nuclear operator, was the victim of a cyberattack, “the most powerful since the beginning of the Russian invasionThis comes at a time of tension around the Ukrainian nuclear power plant in Zaporijjia, in the south of the country, occupied since March by Russian troops.
In a statement posted on Facebook and Telegram, the Ukrainian company denounces an attack “from Russian territory“, specifying however that this one has “had no significant impact on the work of the Energoatom site“. The nuclear operator points the finger at the “popular cyberarmy” group, from a Telegram channel with more than 8,000 subscribers which regularly calls for attacking Ukrainian sites.
Using the Denial of Service (DDoS) attack, the Russian group employed 7.25 million bots that simulated hundreds of millions of views on Energoatom’s homepage for three hours, making the site inaccessible. Calling on its supporters to attack the site of the Ukrainian company around noon, the “people’s cyber army” had changed its target at the end of the day, then attacking the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance.
This attack occurred in a very worrying context in Ukraine, while fighting and bombardments are taking place near the Zaporizhia power plant, which raises fears of a major nuclear accident in Europe.