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              Ukraine Says Communications Hit, MPs Phones Blocked

   by Reuters

   Ukraine's telecommunications system has come under attack, with
   equipment installed in Russian-controlled Crimea used to interfere with
   the mobile phones of members of parliament, the head of Ukraine's SBU
   security service said on Tuesday.
   Some Internet and telephone services were severed after Russian forces
   seized control of airfields and key installations in Ukraine's Crimea
   region on Friday, but now lawmakers were being targeted, Valentyn
   Nalivaichenko told a news briefing.
   "I confirm that an ... attack is under way on mobile phones of members
   of Ukrainian parliament for the second day in row," the security chief
   said at a news briefing.
   "At the entrance to [telecoms firm] Ukrtelecom in Crimea, illegally and
   in violation of all commercial contracts, was installed equipment that
   blocks my phone as well as the phones of other deputies, regardless of
   their political affiliation," he said.
   Ukrtelecom already has said armed men raided its facilities in Crimea
   on Friday and tampered with fiber optic cables, causing outages of
   local telephone and Internet systems on the continent.
   ''
   The Ukrainian security chief did not say whether the new issues were
   linked to the earlier raid or a separate tampering incident. Ukrtelecom
   said it was working on a response to questions from Reuters about
   Nalivaichenko's remarks.
   Russia's domestic intelligence service, the FSB, declined to comment
   when asked if Moscow was behind the communications disruptions in
   Ukraine.
   The main Ukrainian government website www.kmu.gov.ua was offline for
   about 72 hours after Russian forces seized control of the peninsula,
   but went back up early on Monday, said John Bumgarner, chief technology
   officer for the U.S. Cyber Consequences Unit.
   Bumgarner, whose firm advises companies and government agencies on how
   to fend off cyber attacks, said, he is not sure the site went down as a
   result of a cyber attack. Still, he said he believes Moscow has the
   ability to cause major disruptions using cyber operations.
   "I know they have the ability to do at least as much damage as they did
   in Estonia and Georgia," he said.
   Estonia suffered a 10-day attack on its Internet services in 2007,
   which caused major disruptions to its financial system, during a spat
   with Moscow over a Soviet-era war memorial, and Georgia was hit by mass
   cyber attacks during a brief 2008 war with Russia over its pro-Moscow
   South Ossetia region.
   Russian authorities denied direct involvement in both attacks, saying
   they had no influence over the actions of self-styled patriotic
   hackers.
   Is Russia holding back?
   Much of Ukraine's telecommunications infrastructure was built when it
   was part of the Soviet Union, along with what is now the Russian
   Federation, and is particularly vulnerable to penetration by Moscow.
   "The Russians have the place completely wired," said Jim Lewis, a
   former U.S. foreign service officer and now senior fellow at the Center
   for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.
   "They are right next door and most traffic has to go through Russia.
   That they haven't done more probably reflects their confidence that
   they're going to come out ahead and there's nothing anyone can do about
   it," Lewis said.
   Cyber warfare experts say that while Russia certainly has the ability
   to conduct such campaigns against Ukraine, it has yet to need to use
   those capabilities.
   "This would show the Russians acting with more discretion and targeting
   than recently," said John Bassett, former head of the London and
   Washington stations of GCHQ, Britain's top secret government
   communications center.
   "This wouldn't expose any great depth of their technological capability
   and they would be keeping the harder stuff back," said Bassett, now
   associate at Oxford University's Cyber Security Center.
   Marty Martin, a former senior operations officer with the CIA, said
   Moscow likely would only take action to damage Ukraine's Internet and
   internal communications systems if hostilities broke out.
   "A lot of times you don't want to shut things down. If you do that,
   then you don't get your flow of intelligence. You are probably better
   off monitoring it," Martin said.
   Experts believe Russia was behind the hacking of a confidential phone
   conversation between senior U.S. State Department official Victoria
   Nuland and U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt, which was leaked
   over YouTube last month.
   "Russia's strategy is control the narrative, discredit opponents, and
   coerce," said Lewis.

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   [[2]View the story "Ukraine Readies for Conflict After Russian Acts of
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References

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   2. file://storify.com/voa_news/ukraine-on-the-brink-of-war
   3. http://www.voanews.com/content/reu-ukraine-says-communications-hit-and-mp-phones-blocked/1864073.html