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When Russian soldiers planted their boots on Ukrainian soil nearly two months ago, many cybersecurity experts warned of the possibility of the country’s critical infrastructure suffering from a wave of cyberattacks that would basically shut down the country ruled by Zelenski from the rest of the world. Ultimately, none of that happened. Although that does not imply that the cyber army of the Kremlin had his arms crossed. Not much less.
According to a recent study prepared by Microsoft, since before the invasion began, the technology company has detected malicious agents belonging to six countries aligned with Russia launching up to 237 operations against Ukrainian institutions and companies, mainly aimed at destruction of information, espionage and disinformation.
“The attacks have not only degraded the systems of institutions in Ukraine, but have also sought to disrupt people’s access to reliable information and critical life services on which civilians depend, and have sought to undermine confidence in the leadership of the country.
We have also seen limited espionage attack activity involving other NATO member states and some disinformation activity,” said Tom Burt, vice president of Security at Microsoft.
Regarding the battlefield
According to the report, Russia’s cyberattacks against Ukraine appear to be correlated “and sometimes synchronized” with its off-screen military operations: “For example, a Russian actor launched cyberattacks against a major broadcasting company on 1 March, the same day the Russian military announced its intention to destroy Ukrainian ‘disinformation’ targets and carried out a missile attack on a television tower in kyiv.”
Among the attacks detected by the American company, and which were aimed at the elimination of information, the 32% they were directed against Ukrainian government institutions at the national, regional and local levels. Meanwhile, the 40% of such incidents targeted organizations in critical infrastructure sectors of the country “that could have second-order negative effects on the Ukrainian government, military, economy and civilian population.”
The technology indicates that, already in 2021, agents located in Russia and allied countries began to launch attacks aimed at stealing information from targets related to Ukraine in order to prepare the invasion in case the negotiations between the two countries did not materialize. Among the objectives: better understand the military situation of the invaded state and its nuclear security. Attacks aimed at extracting data have continued since the start of the conflict at the end of last February.
Ukraine responds
Ukraine is not making it easy for Russia on the Internet. In the first days of the invasion, the country promoted the creation of an army of ‘hactivists’, called the IT Army, destined to launch cyber attacks on Russian soil. The country has also had the support of international ‘hackers’ who, under the banner of Anonymoushave dedicated themselves to stealing information from Kremlin companies and institutions.
Russia has even come to acknowledge that it is currently suffering the largest wave of cyberattacks in the country’s history. In recent weeks, Anonymous has released, on the Internet, the information of some of the most important companies in the state governed by Putin. Accessible to anyone with a device with an Internet connection. Meanwhile, Ukrainian intelligence has shared the data of hundreds of agents of the FSB – successor to the KGB– and Russian military related to the massacre of civilians in the city of Bucha.
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