Energoatom, a nuclear operator in Ukraine, disclosed on its website on Tuesday what it called a “unprecedented” cyberattack, but claimed that none of its activities had been affected.
The operator posted on Telegram that the website of Energoatom was the target of the most significant hack since the beginning of the Russian invasion on August 16, 2022.
It “came under attack from Russian soil.”
According to Energoatom, the Russian “popular cyberarmy” organization attacked the website for three hours using more than 7 million internet bots.
The attack “did not have a significant impact on the work of the Energoatom website,” though.
Around noon, a Russian Telegram channel with the name “popular cyberarmy” urged its users to assault the website of the Ukrainian nuclear operator.
However, by Tuesday night, it had declared a “change” of course, pointing supporters to a new target – the sluggish website of the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance.
The cyberattack occurs as tensions rise over the country’s southern Zaporizhzhia power facility, which Russian forces took control of in March just after invading their pro-EU neighbor.
The largest nuclear facility in Europe has been shelled, according to accusations from Russia and Ukraine, raising concerns about a nuclear accident.
Before Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, Ukraine relied on four nuclear power plants to provide it with almost half of its electrical needs.
When reactor number four at the Chernobyl power plant erupted in 1986, Ukraine was the scene of the biggest nuclear accident in history.
