Tag: efforts | Page 3

Microsoft: Russia Stepping Up Hacking, Cyber Penetration Efforts on 42 Ukraine Allies

June 25, 2022/in Computer Security

Russian hackers increasing efforts after cyberattack shut down Ukraine internet

May 11, 2022/in Internet Security

Russia carried out a cyberattack during the beginning of its invasion of Ukraine, cutting off from the internet thousands of modems throughout Europe, officials from the U.S., Great Britain, Canada, Estonia and the European Union announced Tuesday.

SpaceX founder Elon Musk, whose Starlink satellites have helped ensure Ukrainians’ access to the internet amid Russia’s invasion, warned that Kremlin forces are “ramping up their efforts.” So far, “Starlink has resisted Russian cyberwar jamming & hacking attempts,” he added.

Russian hackers attacked Viasat’s KA-SAT network in late February as Russian forces marched into Ukraine, the Western governments reported.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Russia launched the cyberattack to “disrupt Ukrainian command and control during the invasion, and those actions had spillover impacts into other European countries.”

British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss called the cyberattack “deliberate and malicious.” Russia was primarily targeting the Ukrainian military, but had disrupted wind farms and internet users in Central Europe, as well, Truss added, citing Britain’s National Cyber Security Centre.

The Council of the European Union said the digital hack caused “indiscriminate communication outages” in Ukraine and other EU member nations.

Elon Musk has been helpful providing Ukraine internet access during Russia’s invasion.

“This unacceptable cyberattack is yet another example of Russia’s continued pattern of irresponsible behavior in cyberspace, which also formed an integral part of its illegal and unjustified invasion of Ukraine,” the council said in a statement.

The cyberattack caused immediate outages for satellite internet users across Europe and affected modems had to be manually replaced.

“After those modems were knocked offline it wasn’t like you unplug them and plug them back in and reboot and they come back,” U.S. National Security Agency Director of Cybersecurity Rob Joyce told Reuters. “They were down and down hard; they had to go back to the factory to be swapped out.”

Ukraine — The cyber hack caused “indiscriminate communication…

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U.S. Indictment Details Russian Efforts To Hack Worldwide Energy Sector

April 19, 2022/in Computer Security

“Russian state-sponsored hackers pose a serious and persistent threat to critical infrastructure both in the United States and around the world,” Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said in a statement. (Photo: Heinz-Jörg Kretschmer / EyeEm via Getty Images)

The United States charged four Russian government employees in major hacking efforts targeting nuclear power plants, power companies, and oil and gas firms around the world, according to indictments made public Thursday by the Department of Justice.

The indictments have been under seal since mid-2021 but were made public to bolster growing concerns that Russia may unleash cyberattacks against the U.S., Europe and other nations that have opposed its ongoing invasion of Ukraine.

In one indictment from August 2021, Justice Department officials said three hackers from Russia’s federal security service (FSB), the Kremlin’s spy agency, worked to target and compromise the energy sector so it could “disrupt and damage such computer systems at a future time of its choosing.” The hacking took place between 2012 and 2017, and targeted “thousands of computers, at hundreds of companies and organizations, in approximately 135 countries,” officials alleged.

A second indictment from June 2021 homed in on an employee of Russia’s ministry of defense and his co-conspirators, alleging Evgeny Viktorovich Gladkikh hacked a multinational energy company in 2017. Officials said the hackers installed malware that interfered with a refinery’s safety systems.

Gladkikh spent six months in 2018 researching how he could deploy a similar effort at U.S. refineries.

“Russian state-sponsored hackers pose a serious and persistent threat to critical infrastructure both in the United States and around the world,” Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said in a statement. “Although the criminal charges unsealed today reflect past activity, they make crystal clear the urgent ongoing need for American businesses to harden their defenses and remain vigilant.”

The four Russians are not in U.S. custody, but a Justice Department official told The Guardian that the “benefit of revealing the results of the investigation now outweighs the likelihood…

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Top US cyber official asks Americans to look out for Russian hacking efforts

March 27, 2022/in Computer Security

The U.S. government is wary about the possibility of a Russian cyberattack on U.S. critical infrastructure paired with Kremlin attempts to spread disinformation about any incident’s effects to sow panic among Americans, a top U.S. cyber official told CNN.”All businesses, all critical infrastructure owners and operators need to assume that disruptive cyber activity is something that the Russians are thinking about, that are preparing for, that are exploring options, as the President said,” Jen Easterly, director of the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), said.”That’s why we are so focused on making sure that everybody understands the potential for this disruptive cyber activity,” Easterly said. “And it’s not about panic. It’s about preparation.”Easterly pointed to the example of a cybercriminal attack on Colonial Pipeline last year, which shut down delivery of fuel to the East Coast for days and led to Americans hoarding gasoline.The Biden administration has for months warned that Moscow could respond to U.S. sanctions over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine with cyberattacks on U.S. infrastructure — or that ransomware gangs like the one that hit Colonial Pipeline could lash out.”The magnitude of Russia’s cyber capacity is fairly consequential and it’s coming,” President Joe Biden told business leaders March 21.Easterly called Biden’s statement, which said Russia was conducting “preparatory activity” for a potential cyberattack, “pretty unprecedented.””I think what makes the moment different is just seeing what the Russians have done with this unprovoked invasion of Ukraine and then understanding there can be some very real consequences of that in cyberspace,” Easterly told CNN.Easterly’s agency, established in 2018, is charged with advising the owners and operators of power plants, manufacturing facilities and other critical infrastructure on how to defend against such threats.Agencies like CISA and the departments of Treasury and Energy have in recent months held cyberthreat briefings on Russian hacking capabilities for America’s biggest banks and electric utilities.Many of those critical infrastructure operators have spent years investing in network…

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