(Bloomberg) — Victoria Nuland, the U.S. under secretary of state for political affairs, said a large-scale cyberattack against Ukraine on Friday was a “tried and true part of the Russian playbook,” the Financial Times reported, citing an interview with her.
But Nuland stopped short of blaming Russia for the cyberattack, which was the worst in four years in Ukraine and brought down the websites of scores of government agencies for hours.
“In the past, Russian operatives have done this to destabilize governments, to test their own capabilities, to undercut the sense of confidence of governments that they have gripes with. So anything is possible here,” she told the FT.
Authorities didn’t immediately identify the source of the hacks, which took place as tensions with Russia intensified over its troop buildup across the border.
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