Ukraine Investigates Suspected Cyberattack on Power Grid

After a blackout that affected parts of Ukraine capital Kiev, officials are launching an investigation to uncover more information.

Vsevolod Kovalchuk, an official from the national power company Ukrenergo, told Reuters a power distribution station close to Kiev "unexpectedly switched off early on Sunday, leaving the northern part of the capital without electricity."

The outage was the equivalent of 200 megawatts of capacity, which is about one-fifth of Kiev's energy consumption at night, according to Kovalchuk.

As for what caused the incident, Kovalchuk told Reuters there were just two possibilities: either failing hardware or outside meddling. A year ago, regional power company Prykarpattyaoblenergo suffered an outage, which U.S. cyber firm iSight Partners traced back Sandworm, a Russian hacking group.