Ukraine’s power grid targeted by Sandworm hackers last year

Ukraine had experienced a less than a day-long power outage in October 2022 following an attack by Russian state-sponsored hacking operation Sandworm targeted at an electrical substation amid the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war, marking the first cyberattack-related power interruption in the country since 2017, CyberScoop reports. While the Ukrainian subsystem's networks was believed to have been infiltrated in June 2022, Sandworm only proceeded to exploit systems to cut power on Oct. 10 before distributing a Caddywiper malware variant to obfuscate malicious activity two days later, according to a report from Mandiant. Such an intrusion was noted by Mandiant Chief Analyst John Hultquist to have been deployed to take a psychological effect on Ukraine. "There's not much evidence that this attack was designed for any practical, military necessity. Civilians are typically the ones who suffer from these attacks and they are probably carried out to exacerbate the psychological toll of the war. It's important that we not lose sight of the serious threat Ukraine is still facing, especially as winter approaches," Hultquist added.