December blackout confirmed as result of cyberattack:
The U.S. government has concluded for the first time that a December power outage in Ukraine affecting 225,000 customers was the result of a cyberattack.
Security experts had already widely concluded that the downing of utilities in western Ukraine on December 23 was due to an attack, which is believed to be the first known successful cyber intrusion to knock out a power grid.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security acknowledged that for the first time on February 25 in a published alert from its Industrial Control Systems Cyber Emergency Response Team.
The department said its assessment was based on interviews with six Ukrainian organizations affected by the blackout.
During the attack, hackers remotely switched breakers in a way that cut power after installing malware, it said.
The attackers are also believed to have spammed the Ukraine utility's customer-service center with phone calls in order to prevent real customers from communicating about their downed power. (Reuters, CSO.com)
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Russian Court Denies Release For Crimean Tatar Leader's Son
Acourt in the Russian city of Astrakhan has rejected a request for the early release of the son of leading Crimean Tatar politician Mustafa Dzhemilev.
Khaiser Dzhemilev was arrested in May 2013 by Ukrainian authorities in connection with the shooting death of a friend.
He has said that he shot his friend by accident.
After Russia's illegal annexation of Crimea in March 2014, authorities in Crimea's Russia-imposed government took over the case and transferred Dzhemilev to the Krasnodar region of southern Russia.
A Krasnodar court in June 2015 sentenced Dzhemilev to five years in jail on charges of theft, inflicting death by negligence, and possessing a firearm.
In September, Russia's Supreme Court reduced his prison term to 3 1/2 years.
His 72-year-old father, Mustafa Dzhemilev, is a Ukrainian lawmaker and a well-known Soviet-era human rights activist.
A former chairman of the Mejlis of Crimean Tatar people who strongly opposed Crimea's occupation and annexation by Russia, he is currently living in Kyiv.
He claims that Russia is holding his son hostage.