Russia is using cyberattacks to break the will of Ukrainians – Politico
After large-scale failures on the frontlines, Russians decided to intensify cyber attacks on Internet providers and energy systems of Ukraine. The occupiers believe that in this way they will be able to break the will of ordinary Ukrainians and turn the tide of the war.
This is reported by Politico.
Although Russia has relied more on missile strikes than cyber weapons to achieve its goals in Ukraine, such attacks on energy, government and transport systems show that Russia also has high hopes for this type of war.
– The longer Russia wages this war, the harder it will be for the Ukrainian people and the more vulnerable they will become to devastating cyber attacks on critical infrastructure,” said Rob Joyce, director of cybersecurity at the U.S. National Security Agency.
Over the past 12 months, the pace of cyberattacks against Ukraine has been tremendous. According to the statistics of the Ukrainian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-UA) provided to Politico, in 2022, more than 2 thousand cyberattacks were carried out on Ukrainian organizations.
More than 300 of these attacks were directed against the security and defense sector, more than 400 attacks were directed against objects that affect the lives of civilians. More than 500 other attacks targeted government institutions.
A recent report by Ukraine’s State Service for Special Communications and Information Protection found that while the pace of cyberattacks against Ukraine slowed overall from September to December 2022, these attacks increasingly targeted public services and the energy sector rather than military targets.
The publication notes that Moscow is trying to make these attacks as psychologically difficult as possible for Ukrainians.
In December, Microsoft warned that the Kremlin was coordinating cyberattacks and missile strikes against Ukrainian energy and water facilities, and that these cyberattacks could spread, for example, to neighboring Poland or private companies providing humanitarian aid to Ukraine.
The attacks included an unsuccessful attempt to hack into an electricity substation that would have cut power to millions of Ukrainians. This is very similar to previous successful attacks by Russia in 2015 and 2016, when blackouts occurred in parts of Ukraine.
– We have seen the Russians strike civilian infrastructure in an unsuccessful attempt to undermine the will of Ukrainians to continue the war,” said Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Mark Warner.
At the same time, it is reported that Russian hackers have successfully interfered with the emergency aid, transport and communications sectors and targeted surveillance cameras to have information about the movements of Ukrainian troops.
But overall, Russian cyberattacks did not cause any significant problems as Russia had hoped.