Russia led a massive cyberattack in Ukraine, says report; Elon Musk says Starlink fighting back

Russia led a large-scale cyberattack against Ukraine against a satellite network, says reports from various countries including USA, Canada, England, Estonia and the European Union. The countries came together on Tuesday and alleged Russia’s involvement. The cyber warfare resulted in thousands of modems going offline at the onset of the Russia-Ukraine war. Elon Musk has also confirmed that Starlink, which provided internet connectivity to Ukraine recently, has been “resisting” various jamming and hacking attempts by Vladimir Putin led Russia. Also read: 260,000 strong army of cyber hackers rise up to help Ukraine fight Russia.

The particular cyber assault was conducted against Viasat’s KA-SAT network towards the end of February. Viasat is an American satellite company that provides internet and communication access to Ukrainian defense. With the entire network going down, this caused Ukraine a massive disadvantage at the cusp of the war. According to a report by Indian Express, the timing of the cyberattack coincides with the first wave of Russian invasion against Ukraine.

The large-scale cyberattack was intended “to disrupt Ukrainian command and control during the invasion, and those actions had spillover impacts into other European countries,” alleged US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken. Also read: Russia will Quit International Space Station over Ukraine sanctions.

Russia downed satellite internet in Ukraine, claim many countries

British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss has also condemned the incident calling it “deliberate and malicious”. The council of the European Union said that the satellite internet attack resulted in “indiscriminate communication outage” in not only Ukraine but also in other EU member states. While the Viasat cyberattack is being labeled as one of the biggest known cyber hacks of the war, Elon Musk is fighting its own war against the Russian hacking attempts.

On Wednesday, Elon Musk tweeted, “Starlink has resisted Russian cyberwar jamming & hacking attempts so far, but they’re ramping up their efforts”. Starlink was one of the few companies around the world that agreed to offer internet service to Ukraine after the public appeal by Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. While Starlink has been functioning normally so far, Musk remains worried that a more concentrated effort may cause damage to Starlink satellites as well.