Ukraine to investigate suspected computer attack on energy grid

Ukraine will investigate a suspected computer malware attack on its energy grid, the energy ministry said on Thursday, an incident that the country's secret service has blamed on Russia.

Prykarpattyaoblenergo, a power company in western Ukraine, said last week that a swath of the area it serves had been left without energy, including the regional capital Ivano-Frankivsk, due to "interference" in the work of the system.

The Ukrainian Security Service SBU later blamed Russia, which has not yet commented on the allegations.

"We found that the package of information (malware) came from Russia," an SBU spokeswoman told Reuters on Thursday. "It was an attempt to interfere in the system. But it was discovered and prevented."

She said that the malware had failed to kick in as intended and was neutralized, adding that the region would have faced a much longer blackout if it had worked.

The energy ministry said on Thursday it had set up a special commission to investigate what happened.

Relations between Russia and Ukraine have sharply deteriorated since Moscow annexed Crimea in March 2014 and supported pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine.

Crimea lost at least a quarter of its power after Ukraine switched off supplies to the contested peninsula on Wednesday, a situation that Ukrainian police blamed on unidentified saboteurs blowing up an electricity pylon.