Ukraine’s national postal office, Ukrposhta, reported a cyberattack on Friday following sales of a postage stamp picturing a Ukrainian soldier making a vulgar gesture to the Russian cruiser Moskva that was sunk last week.
Director General Ihor Smilianskyi said that Ukrposhta, the postal service, had been struck by a distributed denial-of-service attack that temporarily knocked the online shop and other systems offline, but he did not say who was behind it.
“We are really doing everything, together with internet providers, to restore both the online store and other Ukrposhta systems that are also temporarily not working due to a DDos attack on our systems,” he wrote on Facebook.
Smelyansky stated that around 9,500 customers were able to place orders on Friday despite the attack. He went on to say that the Office will accept at least another 7,000 orders once the systems were restored.
Ukrainian military have claimed that they hit the Russian ship with two Neptune missiles, causing an explosion and substantial damage.
According to Russia, the ship sank while being pulled in stormy seas following a fire sparked by an ammunition explosion.
The stamps depicting Ukrainian resistance against Russia’s invasion were immensely popular: residents in Kyiv queued for hours to get them from post offices, while overseas collectors paid more than $500 for them online.
Ukraine said earlier this month that it had foiled a cyberattack by Russian hackers aimed at causing harm to its power infrastructure. According to Ukrainian officials, the hackers behind the attack are linked to Russia’s military intelligence organisation.
Following the recent strikes on Ukraine, US government agencies and their international counterparts issued a joint alert last week about how state-backed hackers may possibly target key infrastructure, affecting “organisations both within and outside Ukraine.”
