More and more hacks with the war in Ukraine, really? The fighting between Russia and Ukraine has had only a marginal effect on the activity of groups specializing in computer crime in the world, estimated this Tuesday Guillaume Poupard, director general of Anssi, the agency in charge of French cyber defense.
“The criminal phenomenon is in my opinion impacted at the margin by the conflict”, he indicated during an event on cybersecurity organized by the Thales group in Paris. While specifying: “we must not be reassured” and take the opportunity to let our guard down.
At the start of the conflict, the fight within the Conti ransomware group, between pro-Russian hackers and pro-Ukrainian hackers, could have led to believe in the next “disappearance” of this “painful” actor, said Guillaume Poupard.
But since Conti has resurfaced, showing himself capable of “bringing an entire country like Costa Rica to its knees, which has just declared a state of emergency because of criminal attacks against its administration”, he regretted.
Ukraine main target
Regarding attacks from states, Guillaume Poupard noted that there was currently “a concentration of Russian effort on Ukraine”. Faced with this offensive, “we see a very strong resilience of Ukraine, which can give hope,” added Mr. Poupard.
France provides cyber information to Ukraine but also strives to maintain an open channel of communication with Russia, also assured the boss of Anssi. “As soon as we have information on an operating mode” of attackers in the cyber domain, “we transfer it immediately” to the Ukrainians, underlined Mr. Poupard.
However, “we are not at war against Russia” and “we remain in this idea that continuing to talk with Russia is essential”, he noted. We must “keep this canal that we had built for several years to avoid a form of escalation”, he continued.