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Undesirable results?
The knock-on effects for the rest of the world may not be limited to deliberate retaliation by Russian agents. Unlike old-fashioned warfare, cyber warfare is not limited by borders and can more easily spiral out of control.
Ukraine has been on the receiving end of aggressive Russian cyber operations for the past decade and has been subject to Moscow’s invasion and military intervention since 2014. In 2015 and 2016, Russian hackers attacked Ukraine’s power grid and turned off the lights in the capital, Kiev. – unique actions that have not been done anywhere else before or since.
The 2017 NotPetya cyberattack, once again ordered by Moscow, was initially aimed at Ukrainian private companies before it spread around the world and destroyed systems.
NotPetya looked like ransomware, but was actually a completely destructive and highly viral piece of code. The devastating malware, which was spotted in Ukraine last week and now known as WhisperGate, acted like ransomware while aiming to destroy important data that rendered machines inoperable. Experts say WhisperGate’s “remindingIt’s down to the technical processes that NotPetya makes the demolition, but there are notable differences. First, WhisperGate is less complex and not designed to spread as quickly. Russia denied participation and did not show a definite link to Moscow.
NotPetya has incapacitated shipping ports and rendered several giant multinational companies and government agencies inoperable. Almost everyone doing business with Ukraine was affected, as the Russians secretly poisoned the software used by anyone who pays taxes or does business in the country.
The White House said the attack caused more than $10 billion in damage globally and described it as “the most devastating and costly cyberattack in history”.
Since 2017, there has been ongoing debate over whether the international victims were simply unintentional collateral damage or whether the attack targeted companies doing business with Russia’s enemies. What is clear is that this could happen again.
Accident or not, Hultquist predicts we will see cyber operations from the GRU, Russia’s military intelligence agency, the organization behind the most aggressive attacks of all time, both inside and outside Ukraine. The GRU’s most notorious hacking group, dubbed Sandworm by experts, has a long list of biggest hits, including the 2015 Ukrainian power grid hack, the 2017 NotPetya hacks, the US and French election interference and the subsequent Olympic opening ceremony hack. responsible for the list. Due to the doping controversy in Russia, the country was excluded from the matches.
Hultquist is also looking for another group, known to experts as Berserk Bear, from the Russian intelligence agency FSB. US officials in 2020 warned the threat posed by the group to government networks aforementioned the same group had obtained “long-term concessions” in companies targeting the energy, water and energy sectors.
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