Ukraine’s government and military sector has seen a 196 per cent increase in cyber attacks since the Russian invasion, according to data from Check Point research.

The cybersecurity firm said it had also detected a four per cent increase in attacks directed at Russian organisations.

However, Checkpoint said it had detected a decrease in cyber attacks globally.

Cyber attacks targeted against the US and North America declined 12 per cent and 13 per cent respectively according to the research.

The research also found that Europe, APAC, and Africa experienced decreases in cyber attacks of eight per cent, six per cent, and 10 per cent respectively.

In addition, Check Point found that phishing emails in Russian and Ukrainian languages have increased by seven times since the invasion.

A third of the malicious phishing emails were directed at Russian targets and sent from Ukrainian email addresses, either real or fake.

The news comes as the Ukrainian government continues to see a wave of donations worldwide in the form of cryptocurrency.

“Cyber activity is surging around the ongoing Russia/Ukraine conflict. We’re seeing cyberattack increases on both sides, with the Ukrainian government and military sector seeing the heaviest increase, “ said Lotem Finkelstein, head of threat intelligence at Check Point Software. “It’s important to understand that the current war also has a cyber dimension to it, where people online are choosing side, from the dark web to social media.

“Today, we are publishing a post on how the Russia/Ukraine conflict is polarising the cyber space. Hacktivists, cybercriminals, white hat researchers or even technology companies are picking a clear side, emboldened to act on behalf of their choices. For people seeking to donate to Ukraine, we’re issuing strong caution of fraudulent emails seeing to capitalise off your willingness to give.

“Always check the email address of the email sender. Watch for any misspellings in emails. And verify if the email sender is authentic.”

He added: “We’ll continue to monitor all sides of the cyber activity around the ongoing war.”

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