Since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, Ukraine has faced 362 cyberattacks, that's almost three times as many hacking attempts against the country’s systems as before the war, according to a new report from The State Service of Special Communication and Information Protection of Ukraine.

According to the agency, a half of the observed cyberattacks were aimed at the Ukrainian government and local authorities (85%), security and defense organizations (49%), commercial organizations (26%), entities in the finance sector (23%), telecom and software developers (22%).

More than half of the attacks were conducted for the purpose of data theft and malware distribution.

To achieve their goals threat actors used a variety of techniques, including malware (96%), phishing (95%), intrusion (48%), the exploitation of known vulnerabilities (25%), violation of information properties (22%).

“Each week we detect attacks made by the same groups that have attacked Ukraine during many years,” the SSSCIP said. “Russian military hackers make cyber attacks to pursue the political ambitions of their country’s leadership… Russia also uses cyberattacks to spread panic among people and create mistrust in authority. In the same way as they try to block access of people to healthcare, food, humanitarian aid and evacuation in the temporarily occupied territories, they use hackers in the cyberspace to block the operation of services for people.”

Earlier this week, the Computer Emergency Response Team of Ukraine (CERT-UA) said it disrupted a cyberattack carried out by the Russia-linked Sandworm advanced persistent threat group (APT) against Ukrainian critical energy infrastructure.

Cybersecurity Help statement on the critical situation in Ukraine

On February 24, people in many cities and towns across Ukraine woke up to the sounds of explosions and artillery fire, as the Russian Federation launched a full-scale invasion of the country. Such actions are unacceptable, political ambitions of any man aren’t worth of blood, tears, and destruction of millions of lives. We give our full support to the Ukrainian people in these hard times. No more war! Слава Україні!