Ukraine reports cyber attack on defence ministry website, banks

A message on the home page of the Ukrainian defence ministry website said it was under maintenance. The ministry tweeted that its website was apparently under a cyber attack and it was working on restoring the access to it.

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Kyiv: Ukraine`s defence ministry and two banks came under a cyber attack on Tuesday that shut access to the ministry`s website, Ukraine`s information security centre said.

The Ukrainian Centre for Strategic Communications and Information Security, which is part of the culture ministry, did not say who it blamed for the attack, but a statement suggested it was pointing the finger at Russia.

"It is not ruled out that the aggressor used tactics of little dirty tricks because its aggressive plans are not working out on a large scale," it said.

Kyiv has blamed Moscow for similar attacks in the past, since Russia began massing more than 100,000 troops near the frontier.

A message on the home page of the Ukrainian defence ministry website said it was under maintenance. The ministry tweeted that its website was apparently under a cyber attack and it was working on restoring access to it.

Oshadbank confirmed the cyber attack saying that it resulted in the slowing down of some of its systems. The strategic communications centre said that Privatbank users also had problems with payments and a banking app. Privatbank did not immediately comment.