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According to a spokesman for the department, the US State Department plans to double the cybersecurity assistance pledged to Ukraine in 2017, namely US$10 million, in order to enhance the ability of allies to resist Russian hacking activities.
US State Department spokesman Heather Nauert said: “The threat from Russia is real. Our commitment to Ukraine is unbending.”
Today after meeting Pres. @Poroshenko, A/S Mitchell announced $5 million more in U.S. assistance to help Ukraine prevent, mitigate, and respond to cyberattacks, doubling the total since last year to $10mil. The threat from #Russia is real. Our commitment to #Ukraine is unbending. pic.twitter.com/vnqOee7gH1
— Matthew Miller (@StateDeptSpox) May 2, 2018
Prior to this, Ukrainian power grids had repeatedly been targeted by hacking activities, and they faced threats of invasion in 2015 and 2016 respectively. The first round of attacks engulfed 225,000 Ukrainian citizens in darkness, and the second round of attacks used malware to paralyze a Ukrainian substation. Ukrainian officials accused the Russian hackers of being responsible for these two attacks.
After the cyber attacks in 2015, U.S. officials formed inter-agency groups and traveled to Ukraine to collaborate with security colleagues to gather forensics.
The U.S. Congress hopes to help Ukraine secure its critical infrastructure:
- The U.S have conducted the first bilateral cyber security dialogue in Kiev (Ukraine capital) in September 2017. The U.S. announced that it will provide 5 million U.S. dollars in cyber security assistance aimed at “strengthening Ukraine’s ability to prevent, mitigate, and respond to cyberattacks.” .
- In February 2018, the United States House of Representatives passed a plan to require the State Department to provide all necessary support to protect the computer equipment used by the Ukrainian government, especially the network system that protects Ukraine’s critical infrastructure.
- The U.S. Army has also established a Ukrainian security assistance plan and hopes to establish a complex cyber warfare center in the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense to enhance the Ukrainian military network’s flexibility.
In December 2017, the IT supplier Black Box Corp announced that it had won an additional $10.4 million in contracts to provide hardware and software products for the Ukrainian security assistance program.
Source: cyberscoop
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