MCAD Maritime Cyber Attack Database
Year2021 |
MonthJune |
Reference number20210604 |
Impact areaVessel |
Incident locationOdessa |
Incident countryUkraine |
Victim countryUK, The Netherlands |
Victim identityBritish destroyer HMS Defender and Dutch frigate HNLMS Evertsen |
Victim TypeNavy, Vessel |
MethodAIS Spoofing |
Attacker countryRussia |
In 2021, on the 24th of June, an incident involving a British warship near the coast of Russian-occupied Crimea may have started online, with a virtual trip that never took place. After steaming 12 kilometres off the Crimean coast, the HMS Defender grabbed headlines. Those waterways are considered Russian territory by the Kremlin, but they belong to Ukraine for much of the rest of the world. To discourage the Royal Navy vessel, Russia's Defense Ministry claimed it fired warning shots and dropped missiles. The Ministry of Defence of the United Kingdom refuted the assertions. The HMS Defender and a Dutch frigate, HNLMS Evertsen, were seen nearing the port of Sevastopol in Crimea in the early hours of June 19, 2021, according to the site's tracking data. Strangely enough, they were not present. Both ships were docked around 300 kilometres away in Odessa, Ukraine, when Marine Traffic showed them entering Russian-controlled territory, according to a live camera feed. The simulated trip was published on Marine Traffic as a warning by an anonymous person. It was all about provoking a reaction and "deploying disruptive power".
