THE CYBER IMPACT OF THE UKRAINE CRISIS
Besides the military threat from Russia, Ukraine and its allies are likely to experience war in a completely different domain – cyberspace. And this is nothing new. Ciaran Martin, the former CEO of the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), said:
“Ukrainians will tell you they’ve been at war with Russia for years. That’s true. And cyber has been a dimension of that. There’s been constant digital harassment: two power outages in Kyiv back in 2015 and 2016, disruption of government online services, and targeting of Ukrainian military for intelligence purposes. Over the last seven or eight years, Ukraine has probably faced greater cyber aggression than any other country on Earth.”
NEVER ACCEPTING THE BLAME
The Kremlin has also been accused of the NotPetya malware that swamped websites of Ukrainian organizations in 2017, including banks, ministries, newspapers and electricity firms. Similar infections were reported in 64 countries including France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Russia, the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia. As expected, Russia would not accept any blame. And the current crisis in Ukraine along with a massive cyberattack in the country in January, one which infiltrated 70 government websites, is bound to exacerbate global cybersecurity concerns. Paul Chichester, D Director of Operations at the NCSC said:
“While we are unaware of any specific cyber threats to UK organisations in relation to events in Ukraine, we are monitoring the situation closely and it is vital that organisations follow the guidance to ensure they are resilient. Over several years, we have observed a pattern of malicious Russian behaviour in cyber space. Last week’s incidents in Ukraine bear the hallmarks of similar Russian activity we have observed before.”
NCSC WARNS THE UK
The NCSC has issued a warning to all UK companies so that they are better prepared should a cyberattack in Ukraine, or elsewhere, infect the internet on a global scale. Actionable steps it recommends include patching systems, enabling multifactor authentication, and checking that backups and restore mechanisms are working. If you have any doubt about how to implement these recommendations, contact Zhero now. As specialists in cybersecurity and risk mitigation, we will crush your IT chaos and deliver better IT faster
