Last week, Russia launched its first virtual attacks against Ukraine. If soldiers and tanks care about national borders, this is not the case with cyberattacks. Cybersecurity experts fear that these hacking offensives do not extend to the whole world, threatening Europe and the United States.
Cyberwar, the final step before war?
While near 100,000 troops are amassed on the Ukraine-Russia border, several official Ukrainian websites have already been the subject of virtual attacks in the past week. The websites of the government cabinet, security and defense councils and the ministry of education are among the sites affected. This virtual attack shows the new face of war: cyberwar.
Ukraine: several government websites are victims of a massive cyberattack
This worries governments around the world who believe that the repercussions on the rest of the world could be felt in the coming weeks. Cyberwar has no borders. On January 18, 2022, the day after the attacks on Ukrainian sites were discovered, the United States Cybersecurity Agency (CISA) ordered its operators to take “urgent short-term measures” against cyber threats.
For John Hultquist, head of intelligence for cybersecurity firm Mandiant, “Cyberattacks are tools that can be used before bullets and missiles fly. For this exact reason, it is a tool that can be used against any country when the situation deteriorates”.
The repercussions of Russian actions in Ukraine
President Joe Biden even said on January 19 that the United States could “responding to future Russian cyberattacks against Ukraine”. Biden thinks that Vladimir Putin will eventually invade Ukraine. The United States stands ready.
Since 2014, Ukraine has been the target of repeated Russian cyberattacks. In 2015, Russian hackers even attacked the Ukrainian power grid and turned off the lights in Kiev. Unprecedented acts. In 2017, the NotPetya cyberattack, orchestrated by Moscow, spread to computer systems around the world.
According to the White House, this attack reportedly caused more than $10 billion in damage worldwide. It would be the “the most destructive and costly cyberattack in history”. These waves of Russian cyberattacks have probably not finished surging.
John Hultquist believes that the Russian military intelligence agency, the GRU, will continue to carry out actions to destabilize world governments, with Ukraine in particular in the line of sight and the impacts that this can have on the rest of the world.