Cyber saber-rattling is cranking up the threat of digital conflict
Last week, in the early stages of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, an ominous headline made the rounds on social media: President Joe Biden was briefed on cyber attack options against Russia, NBC reported, including shutting off power and cutting off access to the internet.
The White House shot down the claim, but the report left many cybersecurity experts rattled. After all, it is not unlikely that cyber escalations from the U.S. or NATO countries could cause Russia to respond with its own suite of cyber attacks on everything from hospitals to elementary schools, local governments, and critical infrastructure like pipelines or the electric grid. It’s a precarious situation, and government officials in America and beyond are bracing for the possibility of mass digital disruptions.
In the U.S., federal agencies have been warned to prepare for possible cyber attacks, with officials even reportedly suggesting employees stock up on food, gas, and supplies. In the U.K., companies have been briefed on the digital threat, and Australia has similarly sounded the alarm on the potential for retaliatory cyber aggression. Ukrainian government websites and banks have already been hit, and an intensification of digital attacks that cut people off from internet access or power as the invasion escalates could be devastating.
Already, several players are wading into the fraught waters of potential digital conflict. Ukraine has launched an “IT army” to fight Russia’s electronic threats. Belarusian “cyber partisans” have allegedly hacked into the country’s rail network to slow down the movement of Russian troops. Then there are the digital kidnappers. A notorious ransomware gang on Friday warned ominously that it was “officially announcing a full support of Russian government” and would “strike back” in the event of a cyber attack against Russia. Many experts believe the latest round of crippling sanctions imposed on Russia by Western nations could cause an uptick in ransomware attacks as a means to generate revenue. Russia is widely known to be a hotbed of ransomware activity: nearly 75% of the income made from ransomware attacks in 2021 were found to go to Russian-linked hackers. What all this means for readers who aren’t in Europe is that the war could still come to you.