War in Ukraine: Three Russian cyber attacks are feared by Western powers

From the internet perspective, Ukraine is under relatively little attack in the current conflict between the two countries, but experts now point out that the targets are Ukraine’s allies.

“Biden’s warnings appear plausible, especially as Western nations have imposed more sanctions against Russia, and hacker activists have been involved in the fight, and the ground manipulation of the invasion did not go as planned,” said Jen Ellis, of Rapid7 cyber. Security.

Below are the most feared by attack experts:

Ukraine is often described as a testing ground for Russian hackers, who carry out attacks to test techniques and tools.

In 2015, Ukraine’s power grid was hit by a cyber attack known as “BlackEnergy”, which caused a short-term blackout that affected 80,000 people in the west of the country.

Nearly a year later, another so-called “industrialist” cyber attack cut off electricity for about an hour in one-fifth of the Ukrainian capital, Kiev.

The U.S. and EU Russian military hackers have blamed the incident.

“It is quite possible for Russia to try to carry out such an attack against the West to show its strength and send a message,” said Marina Krotofil, the Ukrainian cyber security officer who assisted in the investigation into the power outage.

“However, any cyber attack against a power grid does not cause long-term interruptions in the power supply.

Experts such as Krotophil and Western countries believe that these kinds of conflicts could turn against Russia because they can target Russian networks.

NotPetya is considered the most financially damaging cyber attack in history. The author was linked to a group of Russian military hackers by US, UK and EU officials.

The destructive software was upgraded to a computer program widely used in accounting in Ukraine, but it spread around the world, destroying the computer systems of thousands of companies and causing about $ 10 billion in damage.

North Korean hackers were accused of causing major disruption by a similar attack a month ago.

The WannaCry “worm” (a more deadly type of virus) was used to hack or erase data on approximately 300,000 computers in 150 countries. The UK National Health Service has been forced to cancel a number of medical appointments.

“This kind of attack can be a huge opportunity to create mass chaos, economic instability and loss of life,” said Jen Ellis.

“It can be hard to imagine, but important infrastructure [de sistemas] Much of our life in the modern world depends on connected technologies. We’ve seen the potential for this through the impact of WannaCry on UK hospitals. “

Alan Woodward, a professor and computer scientist at the University of Surrey in the United Kingdom, points out that these attacks pose a danger to Russia as well.

“These kinds of uncontrolled hacks are like biological warfare in which it is very difficult to target vital infrastructure in a specific, localized way. WannaCry and NotPetya have claimed lives in Russia.”

In May 2021, several US states adopted emergency plans after hackers were able to block the operation of a major pipeline.

The pipeline carries 45% of the diesel, petrol and jet fuel supplies off the U.S. East Coast. The bomber struck shortly after noon in front of a gas station.

Experts point out that the attack was not carried out by hackers affiliated with the Russian government, but by the ransomware group DarkSide based in Russia.

The victim company admitted to paying US $ 4.4 million (over R $ 21 million) in bitcoin to the perpetrators, and found it difficult to restart and run the computers.

A few weeks later, another ransomware group called REvil attacked the meat supply of Brazil, the world’s largest beef processor, affecting meat supply.

One of the biggest fears experts have about Russian cyber capabilities may be instructing Kremlin groups to coordinate attacks on US targets to increase disruption.

“The advantage of using cybercriminals to carry out ransomware attacks is the general confusion they can cause. In large numbers, they can cause serious economic damage,” said Woodward of the University of Surrey.

“It comes with the bonus that it is possible to deny contact with these groups due to a lack of formal contact with the Russian government.”

In the event that it is highly unlikely that a NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) member state will be targeted by a cyber attack causing casualties or irreparable damage, it could trigger Section 5 of the Coalition’s Joint Security Act.

But experts say it will drag NATO into a war it does not want to be a part of, so answers are likely to come directly from the United States or close allies.

Biden said the United States was ready to retaliate if Russia launched a major attack on the United States.

But any action will be weighed very carefully.

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