Page 10 - The Indian EYE 030422

OpINION MARCH 04, 2022 | The Indian Eye 10

a step beyond sabre rattling:

notes from the ukraine–russia

cyberconflict

The US does have the heft to deter more severe attacks by virtue of its own capabilities, and to sanction and

prosecute individuals identified as perpetrators of less severe attacks, as it has done, in a number of cases. This,

though, does not seem to have had much effect on containing low-level cyberattacks and intrusions

Courtesy: IDSA
CHERIAN SAMuEL

yberattacks are not new to sian Main Intelligence Directorate
Ukraine. They have been part (GRU). For its part, Russia has con-
Cand parcel of its conflict with sistently denied that cyberattack has
Russia from the first crisis in 2017, emanated from its territory.
with the ebb and flow of such attacks Agencies in other countries that
in sync with escalation in the border are involved in the conflict like the
conflict. The current crisis has been no United States (US) have also issued
different with the initiation of the cri- advisories to the effect that cyberat-
sis itself being marked by an escalation tacks may be expected whether or
in the intensity of these attacks. They not the conflict escalates. The inter-
have largely taken the form of distrib- national community and cybersecuri-
uted denial of service (DDoS) attacks ty professionals, in particular, would
which are designed to take critical have unpleasant memories about the
websites offline through a virtual cyber last time conflict escalation took place
bombardment as well as implanting in Ukraine with concomitant cyber-
malware disguised as ransomware on attacks using the NotPetya malware
sites and taking them offline. which, though targeted at Ukrainian
The first ransomware attacks entities, subsequently escaped into the
using a hitherto unknown malware, wild and resulted in a cumulative loss
WhisperGate, was reported on 14 of US$ 14 billion to governments and
January 2022 and has continued ever businesses worldwide. Thus, this is an
since, with the most recent attacks issue that concerns not just the imme-
having taken the websites of the Min- diate parties affected, but the interna-
istry of Defense and two banks offline. An image of the ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs website defaced by hackers. Source: Bill tional community as a whole.
Australia, along with the United King- Toulas, “Multiple ukrainian Government Websites Hacked and Defaced”, BleepingComputer. The first reports of cyberattacks
dom and the United States publicly com, 14 January 2022. in Ukraine appeared on 14 January
attributed these attacks to the Rus- Continued at next page... >>

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