Tag: Cyberwarfare | Page 2

Unmasking Putin’s Schadenfreude and His Suspected Cyberwarfare

October 25, 2023/in Internet Security

Amy Neustein

Bewilderment, angst and fear would grip an entire world on Oct. 7 as savagery and barbarism were unleashed by the Hamas terrorist group on the kibbutzim and towns in Israel along the Gazan border in the early morning hours of Simchas Torah and Shabbat.

Astonishingly, Israel, known for its superior reconnaissance and military savvy, was caught off guard; the consequences were verily catastrophic. Cybersecurity gaps may have contributed to this debacle.

Deputy Editor James Coker of Infosecurity Magazine reported last week that Radware, a publicly-traded cybersecurity company headquartered in Tel Aviv-Yafo with offices in Europe, Africa and Asia Pacific, found that Israel topped the list worldwide in its receipt of DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attacks just five days before the Hamas raid and in the days that followed. Such cyberattacks involve multiple connected online devices, collectively known as “botnet,” in which a targeted website is overwhelmed with fake traffic.

Coker stated Israel received 143 such DDoS attacks “making it the most targeted nation” in the world during that period. Radware found that more than a third of the claimed DDoS attacks were aimed at Israeli governmental agencies. Killnet, a pro-Russian (and purportedly Kremlin-associated) cybersecurity threat group that engaged in DDoS attacks targeting websites in countries that supported Ukraine following the Russian invasion, claimed several attacks on Israel’s cybersystem along with pro-Palestinian hacktivist groups.

Radware pointed to Killnet’s claim on Telegram Messenger, a cloud-based, cross platform instant messaging service, to targeting Israel’s banks and government sites that included Shabak.gov.il, Israel’s internal security service. The Jerusalem Post wrote on X (formerly Twitter) that it suffered downtime due to cyberattacks two days subsequent to the massacre.

Rob Joyce, director of cybersecurity at the National Security Agency, a national level intelligence agency of the United States Department of Defense, weighed in…

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Army trains personnel in cyber-warfare

October 23, 2023/in Internet Security

The Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Taoreed Lagbaja, says the Nigerian Army has acquired electronic warfare capabilities and is now taking advantage of the convergence of electronic and cyber warfare.

Lagbaja said this on Monday in Abuja, at the opening of the Maiden Cyber Security Workshop of the Nigerian Army Cyber Warfare School.

The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the theme of the workshop was “Role of Information Technology in National Security against Upcoming Threats and Cyber-attacks.”

Represented by the Deputy Director-General, Nigerian Army Heritage and Future Centre, Maj. Gen. Sanusi Dahiru, the COAS noted increasing cyber threats to national assets and called on the participants at the training to “use this singular opportunity to learn as much as you can, open up new vistas and perspectives so that we can achieve landmark results for the army and the nation at large.”

He said, “The workshop should not only focus on cybersecurity but should include cyber warfare, as this will equip the Nigerian Army with expertise and knowledge of integrating cybersecurity into military doctrine and tactics as well as exploring the role of cyber warfare in contemporary military operations.”

Lagbaja said that cyber threats could come from many sources, including foreign organisations, hacktivists, governments, groups, criminals as well as individuals, adding that cyber-attacks were increasingly targeting critical infrastructure such as power grids, financial systems, health care organisations and government networks.

“It is for this reason that the Nigerian Army Cyber Warfare Command and NACWS were established to curb the threats posed by this domain.

“We therefore need to rally around to ensure this initiative is effective and efficient, besides the need to protect the huge investments made so far.

“I am particularly pleased with the drive of the school in using its tools not only as a means of academic excellence but as a viable means of proffering solutions to contemporary and future security challenges which is in line with the sustainment of my command philosophy for the Nigerian Army,” Lagbaja added.

He thanked President Bola Tinubu…

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