Russian media company VGTRK , which owns and operates the country's main national television stations, appears to have been hit by Ukrainian hackers on Vladimir Putin 's birthday .
The VGTRK website was down early Monday, and the Rossiya-24 was unavailable online.
Users trying to access the livestream were faced with an error message that read: “The service is unavailable. There is no server to handle this request.”
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“The state media company has faced a powerful hacking attack on its digital infrastructure,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov. He added that VGTRK is working to uncover more details about the attack and its target.
VGTRK said its online service had been hit by a cyberattack overnight. It is worth noting that the company's news channels inform Russians about developments in the war with Ukraine.
A Ukrainian government source said Ukrainian hackers were responsible for the attack on the Russian media company VGTRK, on the day the Russian president turns 72.
“Ukrainian hackers ‘wished’ Putin a happy birthday by carrying out a large-scale attack on the Russian state television and radio broadcasting,” a source told Reuters.
Russian news agency Gazeta.ru reported that the cyberattack targeted VGTRK's online and internal services.
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“Webcasts and internal services are down, and even the Internet and telephony are not working. It will take a long time to fix them,” the Gazeta.ru source reportedly said.
It is also said that the hackers deleted everything from the servers, including backups.
While VGTRK has yet to issue a full statement on the extent of the damage, cyber experts suggest the attack may be part of a broader digital warfare strategy amid ongoing tensions between Russia and Ukraine. The incident highlights the vulnerability of critical infrastructure to sophisticated cyber threats. As the two nations engage in conflict, it is clear that the digital battlefield has become as important as the physical one. This realization calls for improved cybersecurity measures and increased awareness of the potential impact of cyberattacks on essential services and infrastructure.
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As conflicts continue to evolve into the digital age, it is vital for state and private entities to prioritize cybersecurity. Cooperation, information sharing, and investment in cybersecurity defense technologies are essential steps to secure critical infrastructure and protect against potential cyber threats.
Source: www.reuters.com
