How Does A Timeline of Russian Cyberattacks on Ukraine | WIRED Work?

A timeline shows when Russian cyberattacks happened, like a storybook that tells you when each event took place.

Imagine your friend sends you a message on your phone, that’s like a cyberattack. Now imagine doing this many times, but instead of just sending messages, your friend is trying to trick your phone or make it act funny. That's what Russia did to Ukraine using computers!

Like a Game of Hide and Seek

A timeline is like playing hide and seek with your friends, each time someone hides, you write down when they hid. In this case, the timeline shows when Russia "hid" its attacks on Ukraine’s computers.

For example:

  • On one day, Russia sent a sneaky message to Ukraine's phone.
  • A few days later, it made some computers freeze like ice cream left in the sun.
  • Then came a big attack that looked like a snowstorm on the computer screen!

This timeline helps people see how often and when these cyberattacks happened, just like counting how many times you found your friend during hide and seek!

Take the quiz →

Examples

  1. A Russian hacker group launched a surprise attack on Ukraine’s power grid, plunging cities into darkness during the winter.
  2. Ukraine’s military used a simple app to track Russian troop movements in real time.
  3. A cyberattack shut down a major bank in Kyiv, causing chaos for thousands of customers.

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Categories: Science · cyberattacks· Ukraine· Russia· WIRED