Ukrainian government hit with cyberattack

Jan. 14 (UPI) --

The Ukrainian government suffered a cyberattack on several of its government websites Friday, a day after diplomatic talks between Russia, the United States and NATO over security concerns in the country broke down.

One message on the Ukrainian foreign ministry website read, "Be afraid and expect the worst."

The ominous message may have been referring to concerns of a Russian attack on Ukraine sparked by a buildup of thousands of Russian troops along its border, officials and analysts suggested.

"As a result of a massive cyberattack, the websites of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and a number of other government agencies are temporarily down," Oleg Nikolenko, spokesman for Ukraine's foreign ministry, said in a Twitter message.

Some of the other ministry websites that appeared to be affected were education, agricultural, sports and energy ministries.

"Our specialists have already started restoring the work of (information technology) systems, and the cyber police has opened an investigation."

The websites were defaced with messages in Ukrainian, Russian and Polish. Another message on the foreign ministry website read, "Ukrainians!... All information about you has become public," according to the Kyiv Post.

Ukraine's State Service of Special Communication and Information Protection said on its Facebook page that no personal data was leaked in an effort to reassure the public.

The European Union's lead diplomat Josep Borrell condemned the attacks, saying its political and security committee and cyber units would meet to decide how to respond.

"We are going to mobilize all our resources to help Ukraine to tackle this," Borrell said, according to The Guardian. "Sadly, we knew it could happen. It's difficult to say [who is behind it]. I can't blame anybody as I have no proof. But we can imagine."