The list of cyber attacks in Ukraine and Russia continues to stretch: the cyber war continues. The cyber front of the Russian invasion of Ukraine records a new data wiper, CaddyWiper, which has attack Kyiv. With the Kremlin complaining of the steep increase in attacks. But it appears that US intelligence is also evaluating the attack on Viasat on 24 Februaryto understand if it is a direct attack by Moscow on the stars and stripes defense.
New cyber attacks ignite the cyber war between Russia and Ukraine (and beyond)
The information security company Eset has already in recent weeks reported Russian attacks on Ukrainian government networks. In particular, in the very first days of the conflict, Moscow had sent due data wiper. A type of malware that erases information from devices and networks, making it unusable. Apparently, the third.
Is called CaddyWiper. Eset explains that at the moment, “We know that if the wiper works, it will render affected systems unusable. However, to date we do not know the real impact of the threat ”. But Russia already circulated a similar malware called HermeticWiperto then launch a second called Isaac Wiper only the next day.
The goal of these cyber attacks is to weaken Ukraine’s defenses (especially lines of communication) and allow Russian troops to advance more easily. According to expert analysis, both of these malware were in preparation for months before the Kremlin attack on Kyivshowing that military action had been in the pipeline for some time.
The attack on Viasat on February 24 under investigation by US intelligence
In fact, in these hours another attack from the first days of the conflict is being analyzed, which however seems to have been in preparation for a long time. We are talking about the blitz that put out of use the satellite service of Viasat, from 5 to 9 in the morning of February 24th.
Already according to the analysis of the cybersecurity organization of the French government Anssi and Ukrainian intelligence, Moscow was responsible for that attack. Which took tens of thousands of users offline in Central Eastern Europe, just as Kremlin troops invaded Ukraine. But now it looks like the American NSA is evaluating the attack. In fact, Viasat does Defense contractor for the US and NATO allies, for military and intelligence communications.
This could lead to an escalation of the conflict, at least on the IT point of view. Moscow has disavowed this coup but what the United States will decide to do remains to be assessed. The USA has great military availability also on the IT front and a direct confrontation with Moscow it could have unprecedented consequences.
Russia laments the increase in cyber attacks and threatens the population
The Russian media regulator Roskomnadzor, of which much has been said in recent days due to the strict censorship in Russia regarding the Ukrainian conflict, lamented the increase in the number of cyber attacks in Russia. In particular, those against government agencies. Like the one she suffered, leading to the online publication of over 800GB of data on Russian censorship by Anonymous.
Roskomnadzor threatened the Russian population with criminal consequences for Russian users who got involved with hackers. “There has been a sharp increase in the number of cyber attacks on the government’s information systems and electronic infrastructure Russian Federation from February 24. Considerable skill was used for these attacks. Hackers are trying to engage actively Russian users in such illegal acts “. In particular, they explain that there was “a large-scale propaganda campaign was launched on social media”.
Furthermore, they present a not too veiled threat to citizens who should yield to the pressure of Western hackers: “We want to remind Russian citizens of the unacceptable participation in cybercrime and responsibility, including criminal liability, for such illegal acts “.
There are in fact dozens of operations by Anonymous who contacted the Russian population directly, informing them about the situation in Ukraine and asking to rebel: last week they sent over 7 million emails and messagesthe. And besides them there are also over 300,000 volunteers from the IT Army for Ukrainand, who use Telegram to organize attacks on the Kremlin.
The Russian threats underline how much the government oppresses dissent in the country. But they also demonstrate fear of these cyber attack campaigns. Which in all likelihood are destined to increase: we will keep you informed.