Reports from investigation into a power cut that rocked a part of the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, last December has been alleged to be a cyber-attack.
The outage which lasted slightly over an hour had started shortly before midnight of December 17th.
Cyber-security firm Information Systems Security Partners (ISSP), in a latest disclosure, have linked the development to an earlier hack and power failure in 2015.
Speaking to a source, the country’s national energy company Ukrenergo disclosed that, the December incident had resulted in a loss of nearly a-fifth of the Ukrainian capital’s power consumption at the time it occurred.
The power cut particularly affected the Pivnichna substation outside the capital, leaving residents in the area and its environs without electricity till after 1:00 December 18th.
The attack is said to have occurred exactly a year after an earlier one on a regional electricity distribution company, which was later blamed on the Russians.
Although the attack is yet to be linked to any particular source, Ukrainians have claimed the country was a major target for Russian cyber-attacks towards the end of 2016.
Now, ISSP, the Ukrainian company charged with investigating the attack on behalf of Ukrenergo said the incidence is linked to others earlier experienced.
It claimed both the 2015 as well as last year’s attacks were connected, alongside several other cyber -attacks on state institutions during the Christmas period such as those on the national railway system, a national pension fund and government ministries.
Speaking to a journalist, head of ISSP labs, Oleksii Yasnskiy said: "The attacks in 2016 and 2015 were not much different - the only distinction was that the attacks of 2016 became more complex and were much better organized."
He further asserted that various criminal syndicates had collaborated on the attack, in what appears to be an effort to test certain techniques that could be used for sabotage cyber operations anywhere else on our planet. A claim that heightens the anxiety spurred by this 21st century menace that is already raining so much havoc round the world.
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