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Romania supports the EU statement and joins the United States and other international partners in the demarche to attribute the cyberattack on KA-SAT/VIASAT satellite communications network, which took place on February 24, in the context of the Russian Federation's aggression against Ukraine, informs a press release of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MAE).
"The impact on the Viasat network has been significant, affecting users in EU member-states, including Romania. Cyberattacks on critical infrastructure are unacceptable. Romania is deeply concerned about the destructive, disruptive and destabilizing effects of these cyberattacks," reads the release .
According to the quoted source, Romania also condemns, in context, the cyberattacks against Ukraine, carried out both before and after the outbreak of the conflict, as well as the use of malware and DDoS attacks for these purposes.
Romania expresses its full solidarity with Ukraine and the Ukrainian people and condemns the unprovoked and unjustified aggression of the Russian Federation, including through the use of cyberattacks, the MAE reports.
"Such malicious attacks are carried out with disregard for the international framework of responsible behavior of states in cyberspace, as defined at the UN level by the consensus reports of the UN Group of Governmental Experts (UNGGE) and reaffirmed by the Open Group with Extended Participation (OEWG)," states the cited source.
The European Union on Tuesday accused the Russian authorities of carrying out a cyberattack on a satellite network an hour before the invasion of Ukraine to prepare the ground for the assault, international media reported.
This is the first time the EU has openly accused the Russian government of carrying out a cyberattack, European Foreign Minister Josep Borrell told a news conference in Brussels.
"The cyberattack took place an hour before Russia's unprovoked and unjustified invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, thus facilitating military aggression," the EU said in a statement on behalf of the 27 member-states.
"This cyberattack had a significant impact causing indiscriminate communication outages and disruptions across several public authorities, businesses and users in Ukraine, as well as affecting several EU Member States," the statement said.
"The European Union and its Member States, together with its international partners, strongly condemn the malicious cyber activity conducted by the Russian Federation against Ukraine, which targeted the satellite KA-SAT network, operated by Viasat," the document added.
"We can attribute the attack to the Russian government," said Josep Borrell.
The EU had so far claimed that the cyberattacks came "from within Russia", but without incriminating the Russian authorities.
"The European Union, working closely with its partners, is considering further steps to prevent, discourage, deter and respond to such malicious behaviour in cyberspace," the EU's declaration shows.
"The European Union will continue to provide coordinated political, financial and material support to Ukraine to strengthen its cyber resilience," the text reads.
The attack on the US satellite operator Viasat has left thousands of users without internet in Germany, France, Hungary, Greece, Italy or Poland, according to international media.
