Shaping the battlefield. Darius, king of Persia, did it in 331bc, with caltrops strewn where he thought his enemy Alexander the Great would advance. The Allies did it in 1944, with dummy aircraft and landing craft intended to fool Germany’s high command into thinking their invasion of France would be in the Pas de Calais, …
Why Russia’s cyber-war in Ukraine has been intense, but not always effective Read More
At the beginning of the February invasion of Ukraine, there was widespread fear that cybercrime would be weaponized against Western organizations, especially given earlier examples of the Russian security services tolerating cybercriminals targeting the West (or even trying to recruit them for service). The US-Russian dialogue on cybercrime, which reportedly led to the arrest of …
How the war on Ukraine is reshaping Russia’s digital underground Read More
In mid-September, the Ukrainian hacker group Hdr0 attacked the website of Mosoblenergo, a Russian state energy service provider. The hackers put on the home page a picture of Oleksiy Danilov, a high-ranking Ukrainian defense official, walking on the Red Square while the Kremlin was on fire. The hackers also obtained the database of company employees. …
The National Republican Army (NRA) of Russia is seeking the overthrow of Vladimir Putin’s regime, including via the use of violent means. On Oct. 17, in perhaps one of the largest IT-security breaches in Russian history, NRA-affiliates told Kyiv Post that they had hacked several major Russian technology firms that are currently providing services critical to the …
Russian anti-Putin hackers claim massive attack on government contractors computers Read More
What key lessons can we draw from the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine about the role of cyber operations in military conflict? How do Russian cyber operations differ in wartime compared to peacetime activity? And what cyber activity can we expect in the months ahead? On 30 May, the European Cyber Conflict Research Initiative (ECCRI) …
Report: Lessons learned from cyber operations during the Russian invasion of Ukraine Read More
The Kremlin-backed cyberattack against satellite communications provider Viasat, which happened on Feb. 24 an hour before Russia invaded Ukraine, was “one of the biggest cyber events that we have seen, perhaps ever, and certainly in warfare,” according to Dmitri Alperovitch, a co-founder and former CTO of CrowdStrike and chair of security-centric think tank Silverado Policy …
Why Russia’s giant cyber attack on Ukraine on Feb. 24 had relatively little impact Read More
Weeks before tanks and soldiers marched on the cities of Ukraine, Russia carried out a series of successful cyberattacks against Ukraine, hitting critical infrastructure and financial institutions around the country with at least six unique strains of destructive wiper malware. Recent reporting confirms Russia’s GRU also carried out a massive cyberattack against Viasat, knocking its customers’ KA-SAT satellite …
Since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, many cybersecurity experts and activists have joined the Ukrainian cyber front. They carry out DDoS attacks on Russian resources, defacing Russian sites, taking their popular services offline, and even more drastic operations. One of the coordinators of such IT armies is Kharkiv cybersecurity specialist Mykyta Knysh. Having worked …
How Ukrainian “Inglorious Basterds” are combating Russia on the cyber front Read More
Two days after the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, a group of hackers managed to get access to several Russian state-owned television channels and broadcast anti-war videos. But the attack ended after a few minutes and regular programming resumed. This type of fleeting hacking operation has been repeated many times in Russia in recent weeks in …
Hacker attacks on Russia gain attention but cause little damage Read More
The Computer Emergency Response Team of Ukraine (CERT-UA) has disrupted an attempt by Sandworm, a hacking group known to work for Russia’s military intelligence, to take down a Ukrainian energy provider. The Russia-backed hacking group attempted to disconnect the unnamed provider’s electrical substations using a new version of the infamous Industroyer malware, CERT-UA said in a security …
Ukraine disrupts attempt by Russian hackers to take down energy provider Read More
The United States said on Wednesday that it had secretly removed malware from computer networks around the world in recent weeks, a step to pre-empt Russian cyberattacks and send a message to President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia. The move, made public by Attorney General Merrick B. Garland, comes as U.S. officials warn that Russia …
How US secretly removed malware worldwide, pre-empting Russian cyberattacks Read More
Hackivist group ‘Anonymous’ claimed Thursday its affiliate group Black Rabbit World (@Thblckrbbtworld) had leaked 35,000 files from Russia’s central bank. The group exposed the stolen files — 28 GB of data — Friday evening, sharing two links to the file hosting service Mega NZ. The folders contain Office and TXT files. Most documents are written in Cyrillic, some are in English. …
Anonymous hacktivists claims to have leaked 35,000 files from Russia’s central bank Read More
