Tag Archives: Cyberattacks

US and nine allied nations formally accused Russian government of masterminding cyberattacks

Russian-flag

Important Takeaways:

  • The United States and nine allied nations on Thursday formally accused the Russian government of masterminding cyberattacks in 2020 on Ukrainian critical infrastructure, among many other targets.
  • The countries pinned the attacks, which largely used a type of malware known as “WhisperGate,” on GRU Unit 29155, a Russian military hacking group.
  • Hacking efforts as part of this campaign began in 2020, and included attacks on Ukrainian groups in January 2022 ahead of Russia’s invasion, along with critical infrastructure organizations in government, transportation, financial, health and other sectors in NATO member states.
  • According to the FBI, this hacking activity included more than 14,000 observed instances of scanning networks in more than 20 NATO member states and European nations, along with targeting of groups in Central American and Asian nations.
  • The Justice Department accused the group of carrying out attacks, including the probing of an unnamed Maryland-based U.S. government agency between August 2021 and February 2022, and of hacking the transportation infrastructure of an unnamed Central European nation supportive of Ukraine in mid-2022.

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Reuters article warns of US power grids susceptible to cyberattack increased to about 60 per day

Power-Grid

Important Takeaways:

  • Cyberattack threats to U.S. power grid on the rise, as presidential election looms
  • U.S. power grids are increasingly vulnerable to cyberattacks, with the number of susceptible points in electrical networks increasing by about 60 per day, the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) said in a webcast on Thursday.
  • The grids’ virtual and physical weak spots, or points in software or hardware that are susceptible to cyber criminals, grew to a range of 23,000 to 24,000 last year from 21,000 to 22,000 by the end of 2022, executives with the energy regulator said.
  • Physical assaults on the grid have remained high since rising in 2022, with about 2,800 reports of gunfire, vandalism, and other strikes on electrical networks last year, NERC said. Some 3 percent of those attacks led to outages or other operational problems.

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Critical US water systems are being targeted by China and Iran State Department warns

Water-system

Important Takeaways:

  • The Biden administration is warning states to be on guard for cyberattacks against water systems, citing ongoing threats from hackers linked to the governments of Iran and China.
  • “Disabling cyberattacks are striking water and wastewater systems throughout the United States,” Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan wrote in a letter to governors made public Tuesday. “These attacks have the potential to disrupt the critical lifeline of clean and safe drinking water, as well as impose significant costs on affected communities.”
  • Hackers affiliated with the Iranian Government Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps have attacked drinking water systems, while a People’s Republic of China state-sponsored group, Volt Typhoon, has compromised information technology of drinking water and other critical infrastructure systems, the letter warned.
  • “Federal departments and agencies assess with high confidence that Volt Typhoon actors are pre-positioning themselves to disrupt critical infrastructure operations in the event of geopolitical tensions and/or military conflicts,” said the letter.

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Russia to move all business to local internet. Experts say Putin could launch offensive cyber-attack

Revelations 6:3-4 “ when he opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, “Come!” 4 And out came another horse, bright red. Its rider was permitted to take peace from the earth, so that people should slay one another, and he was given a great sword.

Important Takeaways:

  • Russia to launch ‘hybrid warfare’ against UK this week with wave of cyber-attacks
  • Vladimir Putin has ordered all Russian businesses to sever internet connections with the West by Tuesday, in a move that experts say may herald the launch of offensive cyber-attacks.
  • The orders came to light at the same time as a Russian spy ship, Yantar, left her home port of Severomorsk, in Murmansk.
  • Though officially used for oceanographic research, the 5,372-ton vessel is actually a mothership for two unmanned submarines capable of cutting data cables laid deep on the ocean floor.
  • Russia has been trying to insulate itself from the World Wide Web for many years to mitigate the impact of Western surveillance.

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Warning to financial firms to be prepared for Cyber-attack

Revelations 6:3-4 “ when he opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, “Come!” 4 And out came another horse, bright red. Its rider was permitted to take peace from the earth, so that people should slay one another, and he was given a great sword.

Important Takeaways:

  • US warns of potential Russian cyberattacks on wealth managers
  • U.S. officials have already blamed Russia for at least two rounds of attacks on Ukrainian websites in February — the largest in the country’s history — and have alerted American financial institutions to be on the lookout for increased cyber activity.
  • “While there are not currently any specific credible threats to the U.S. homeland, we are mindful of the potential for the Russian government to consider escalating its destabilizing actions in ways that may impact others outside of Ukraine,” DHS’ Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency said in the letter.

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Russia Keeps Nuclear Personnel on High Alert as Peace Talks are Underway

Matthew 24:6 “And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed, for this must take place, but the end is not yet.”

Important Takeaways:

  • Ukraine, Russia envoys talk under shadow of nuclear threat
  • In a war being waged both on the ground and online, cyberattacks hit Ukrainian embassies around the world, and Russian media.
  • Western nations ramped up the pressure with a freeze on Russia’s hard currency reserves, threatening to bring Russia’s economy to its knees. Russians withdrew savings and sought to shed rubles for dollars and euros, while Russian businesses scrambled to protect their finances.
  • The U.S., European Union and Britain also agreed to block selected Russian banks from the SWIFT system, which facilitates moving money around thousands of banks and other financial institutions worldwide.
  • Ukrainian authorities have been handing out weapons to anyone willing to defend the city. Ukraine is also releasing prisoners with military experience who want to fight, and training people to make firebombs.
  • In another possible escalation, neighboring Belarus could send troops to help Russia as soon as Monday, according to a senior American intelligence official with direct knowledge of current U.S. intelligence assessments.
  • On Monday, the Defense Ministry said extra personnel were deployed to Russian nuclear forces, and that the high alert status applies to all their components: the forces that oversee land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles, submarine-launched intercontinental ballistic missiles, and the fleet of nuclear-capable strategic bombers.
  • Exact death tolls are unclear, but the U.N. human rights chief said 102 civilians have been killed and hundreds wounded in five days of fighting — warning that figure was likely a vast undercount — and Ukraine’s president said at least 16 children were among the dead. More than 500,000 people have fled the country since the invasion, another U.N. official said

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Ukraine-Russia Crisis: Cyberattacks Could Affect U.S.

Important Takeaways:

  • If Russia mounts cyberattacks against the United States, the targets could include banks, power plants, water treatment facilities, and communications. Cyber experts say Russia has the capability to disable or destroy U.S. satellites. Those attacks could also impact GPS for navigation, farming, automation, and oil exploration.
  • “Our food supply, things that have to do with our power supply, utilities,” cybersecurity expert Ian Marlow said. “Utilities have been brought down and then you don’t have service.”

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Possible “Hybrid War” if talks fail, Archbishop of Latvia

Matthew 24:6 You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come.

Important Takeaways:

  • Latvian Archbishop: If Putin Attacks Ukraine ‘We Will Be Next’
  • “If Vladimir Putin attacks Ukraine, we — the Baltic states — will be next, and then Poland too,” said Stankiewicz, the archbishop of Riga, Latvia’s capital. “If there is no dialogue, it will be very dangerous and could lead to a military situation.”
  • The archbishop said that Latvia fears a possible “hybrid war” combining military and non-military measures, such as propaganda and cyberattacks, used to destabilize the country.

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North Korea developing nuclear, missile programs in 2021 -U.N. report

By Michelle Nichols

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – North Korea continued developing its nuclear and ballistic missile programs during the first half of 2021 in violation of international sanctions and despite the country’s worsening economic situation, according to an excerpt of a confidential United Nations report seen by Reuters on Friday.

The report by a panel of independent sanctions monitors to the U.N. Security Council North Korea sanctions committee said Pyongyang “continued to seek material and technology for these programs overseas.”

“Despite the country’s focus on its worsening economic travails, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea continued to maintain and develop its nuclear and ballistic missile programs,” the sanctions monitors concluded.

North Korea is formally known as the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK). North Korea’s mission to the United Nations in New York did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the U.N. report.

The isolated Asian nation imposed a strict lockdown last year amid the coronavirus pandemic that has slashed its trade and aid access, hurting an economy already burdened by international sanctions.

In June, leader Kim Jong Un said the country faced a “tense” food situation and much would depend on this year’s harvests.

“Statements made by DPRK suggested a deepening humanitarian crisis in the country, although the COVID-19 blockade means that the relative impact of sanctions on the humanitarian situation has probably decreased,” the U.N. monitors wrote.

“With trade all but stopped by the blockade, and last year’s harvest badly affected by floods, the current prospects of the wider DPRK population are poor,” they said.

North Korea has been subjected to U.N. sanctions since 2006 over its nuclear and ballistic missile programs. The Security Council has steadily strengthened sanctions in a bid to cut off funding for the programs.

Among the sanctions imposed are a ban on the export of coal and other commodities and the import of oil.

“Maritime exports from DPRK of coal and other sanctioned commodities continued, but at a much reduced level. The import of oil products reported to the panel fell substantially in the first half of the year,” according to the U.N. report.

Pyongyang also continued to access international financial institutions and North Korean workers continued to earn money overseas for use in state programs, said the U.N. sanctions monitors, adding: “Officials overseas continued to feel pressure to develop revenue streams.”

The monitors said they were continuing to investigate North Korea’s involvement in global cyber activity and collaboration by North Korean academics and universities with scientific institutes abroad, “focusing on studies with potential applications in WMD (weapons of mass destruction) programs.”

The U.N. sanctions monitors have previously reported that North Korea has stolen hundreds of millions of dollars using cyberattacks.

(Reporting by Michelle Nichols; Editing by Mark Potter)

Biden, Putin to meet in Geneva on June 16 amid disagreements

By Nandita Bose and Arshad Mohammed

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet in Geneva on June 16, the White House and the Kremlin said on Tuesday amid sharp disputes over election interference, cyberattacks, human rights and Ukraine.

Earlier this month, Reuters reported that both countries were lowering expectations for breakthroughs at the superpower summit, with neither in a mood to make concessions on their disagreements.

“The leaders will discuss the full range of pressing issues, as we seek to restore predictability and stability to the U.S.-Russia relationship,” White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said on Tuesday.

The Kremlin said in a statement that the two leaders would discuss bilateral ties, problems related to strategic nuclear stability, and other issues including cooperation in the fight against COVID-19 and regional conflicts.

Biden has previously said he wants Putin to stop trying to influence U.S. elections, stop cyberattacks on U.S. networks emanating from Russia, stop threatening Ukraine’s sovereignty and release jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny.

The White House has avoided describing Biden as seeking a “reset” in relations with Putin, a term often used by former U.S. presidents as they seek to improve relations with Russia.

Rather, U.S. officials see the face-to-face meeting as an opportunity to tilt the relationship away from what they view as former President Donald Trump’s fawning overtures to Putin.

Russian officials told Reuters they regard the summit as an opportunity to hear from Biden directly after what a source close to the Russian government said were mixed messages from the U.S. administration that took office on Jan. 20.

Putin views U.S. pressure over Navalny and its support for pro-democracy activists in Russia and Belarus as tantamount to interfering in Russian domestic affairs.

Russia is also unhappy about U.S. sanctions, including those announced on April 15 that included curbs to the Russian sovereign debt market to punish Moscow for interfering in the 2020 U.S. election, cyber hacking, bullying Ukraine and other alleged malign actions which Russia denies.

The U.S. government blacklisted Russian companies, expelled Russian diplomats and barred U.S. banks from buying sovereign bonds from Russia’s central bank, national wealth fund and Finance Ministry. The United States warned Russia that more penalties were possible but said it did not want to escalate.

Russia denies meddling in U.S. elections, orchestrating a cyber hack that used U.S. tech company SolarWinds Corp SWI.N to penetrate U.S. government networks and employing a nerve agent to poison Navalny, who is imprisoned on charges he says are politically motivated.

Biden has also voiced concerns about the buildup of Russian forces in Crimea, which Russia seized from Ukraine in March 2014, and along the border with Ukraine, which have raised U.S. worries about a possible invasion.

Another topic likely to come up is Western outrage at Belarus, which scrambled a fighter and forced a Ryanair plane to land on Sunday in Minsk, where authorities arrested a Belarusian dissident journalist aboard the plane.

Russia has denied reports four of its citizens got off the plane in Minsk, which sparked suspicions of Russian involvement.

(Reporting by Susan Heavey and Nandita Bose; Writing by Arshad Mohammed; Editing by Doina Chiacu and Howard Goller)