Are Russia and Ukraine on the Verge of an All-Out Cyberwar?

http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2014/03/cyber-war-ukraine-russia

Ukraine original: DDima/Wikimedia Commons; ASCII effect: DeGraeve.com. Photoillustration byMatt Connolly.

For the past week, reports of physical violence have been rolling out of Ukraine: Russian troops storming a base in Crimea, officers beating journalists, and violent brawls at rallies. But as tensions escalate, another part of the conflict appears to be playing out in a cloudier realm: cyberspace.

On Saturday, Ukraine's top security agency—the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine—announced at a briefing that it had been hit by severe denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, "apparently aimed at hindering a response to the challenges faced by our state." This comes on the heels of a number of alleged hacks involving Russian and Ukrainian targets, including attacks on news outlets and blocking reception to the cellphones of Ukrainian parliament members.

—By Hannah Levintova

| Wed Mar. 12, 2014 9:16 AM PDT