The Russian government is preparing an enormous cyber attack targeting the Champions League final on Saturday, according to Ukrainian state security.
Talos Intelligence - the security arm of computer networking firm Cisco, which detected the attack - said it was releasing the information before their investigations are complete because of the urgency in preventing the attack.
Cisco has warned that hackers have infected at least 500,000 internet routers and storage devices with sophisticated state-developed malware in dozens of countries, with a focus on Ukraine.
The country's capital is hosting the Champions League final on Saturday night, with Liverpool facing Real Madrid.
In a statement, the Ukrainian security service said its experts "believe that the infection of hardware on the territory of Ukraine is preparation for another act of cyber aggression by the Russian Federation, aimed at destabilising the situation during the Champions League final."
Affected countries include the UK, Cisco's Martin Lee told Sky News, but the primary target for the hacking campaign was Ukraine.
The malware, which has been called VPNFilter by Cisco, could be used for espionage as well as to destroy the devices that it has infected.
This could cause havoc in Ukraine, a year after another "powerful" cyber attack on the country spread across the world, taking down Chernobyl's radiation monitoring system in the process.
Read more: https://news.sky.com/story/kremlin-planning-champions-league-cyber-attack-ukrainian-state-agency-claims-11383050
Talos Intelligence - the security arm of computer networking firm Cisco, which detected the attack - said it was releasing the information before their investigations are complete because of the urgency in preventing the attack.
Cisco has warned that hackers have infected at least 500,000 internet routers and storage devices with sophisticated state-developed malware in dozens of countries, with a focus on Ukraine.
The country's capital is hosting the Champions League final on Saturday night, with Liverpool facing Real Madrid.
In a statement, the Ukrainian security service said its experts "believe that the infection of hardware on the territory of Ukraine is preparation for another act of cyber aggression by the Russian Federation, aimed at destabilising the situation during the Champions League final."
Affected countries include the UK, Cisco's Martin Lee told Sky News, but the primary target for the hacking campaign was Ukraine.
The malware, which has been called VPNFilter by Cisco, could be used for espionage as well as to destroy the devices that it has infected.
This could cause havoc in Ukraine, a year after another "powerful" cyber attack on the country spread across the world, taking down Chernobyl's radiation monitoring system in the process.
Read more: https://news.sky.com/story/kremlin-planning-champions-league-cyber-attack-ukrainian-state-agency-claims-11383050