Explained | The Hermetic Wiper malware that targeted Ukraine
The Hindu
Several Ukrainian computers and websites faced cyberattacks by a destructive data-wiper malware hours before Russia began its military assault in the country
Even as Ukraine grapples with the military operation launched by Russia on February 24, the country is also being targeted by large-scale cyber attacks targeting government websites, banks, and other users.
While it cannot be confirmed if Russia is propagating these attacks, experts are convinced that such cyber activities are a part of Russia’s “hybrid warfare”, using a combination of conventional and advanced tactics. It involves non-state and state-backed cyber attacks to remotely target a country’s infrastructure such as financial institutions, government databases, and power grids. The Russian Main Intelligence Directorate or GRU has been accused by the United States of carrying out cyber attacks in the past.
On February 23, hours before Russia advanced a full-scale military operation into Ukraine, cybersecurity firms Symantec and ESET said that a new and sophisticated strain of a data-wiper malware, dubbed Hermetic Wiper, had been detected in hundreds of computers in Ukraine.
Also on that day, Ukraine was hit by a distributed denial-of-service or DDoS attack, which caused several of its government and private websites to crash, reported BBC.
Over a week earlier, on February 15, some 70 Ukrainian government websites and its defence and armed forces networks were hit by similar DDoS attacks, which the U.S. and U.K. pinned on Russian hacking groups.
On the night of February 23, the Slovakian cybersecurity company ESET said it had detected the data-wiper malware, which it named Hermetic Wiper, on hundreds of computers in Ukraine. The name is likely derived from the company name Hermetica Digital Ltd, to which the malware’s code signing certificate was issued.
The data-wiper malware, when downloaded, can erase all the data on a device it targets, in a manner that renders the data irretrievable.
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