Cyber Attacks in Ukraine — Did Russia Do It?

I’m reminded of how the battleship USS Maine blew up in Havana Harbor in 1898 and Spain was immediately blamed. That event led to all out war between the United States and Spain. What seems obvious to some may not square with the facts of a situation.

With the above in mind, we all know about the ongoing tensions between Russia and Ukraine. Recently there was a hack of Ukraine’s Defense Ministry.

Here are some insights about that event from Sam Curry, CSO of Cybereason:

“It would be premature to pin these attacks on Moscow, as it could be others from domestic separatists, political groups to ‘Russian aligned’ groups. It might be a diversion from something else, like a stealthier cyberattack as cyber defenders dive into the incident response side of these attacks. It could even be opportunistic attacks to frame the Russians, although that is less likely. There aren’t that many candidates for these targets since profit doesn’t seem to be an element and the sides are polarized.

“This would appear to be straight cyber conflict and not part of the hybrid warfare campaigns rumored to be the handiwork of Russia. Used against Ukrainian citizens and government officials, hybrid warfare is meant to sew fear and to disrupt the everyday lives of people. To qualify for hybrid warfare, the attack would have to be in combination with other means of conducting war, like an air raid, an invasion, missiles, etc. There is definitely a degree of PsyOps here, but this is about lowering the fog of war on an opponent and raising the stakes.”