24 Feb Get Ready for Russian Cyberattacks

The invasion of Ukraine and Russian aggression will aggression on multiple fronts

At the time of writing this, it’s a day after Russia’s declaration of war and invasion of Ukrainian territories. I will spare you my interpretations and analytics of the situation, there are far better journalists and media outlets to check out. This article, too, is a time-sensitive piece. How relevant it is in months, I can’t say.

My priority, right now, is to alert readers and anyone working with Bytagig to take on a state of extreme caution. I’ve written before about how global events are kindling for cyber-attacks. But war is a different beast, more so because it’s from the aggression of a country that hosts infamous ransomware gangs.

No matter your enterprise, organization, or agency, you need to be on alert. Zero-trust, MFA, network monitoring, staff notifications, and every other common-sense practice you can think of need to roll out, now.

Current Threat Climate:

• Russian cyberattacks, state-sponsored or otherwise, can and likely will target critical infrastructure, important networks, and businesses in the United States and abroad
• Escalation continues and so long as Russian aggression intensifies, cyber infrastructure will remain a target
• In the event of successful attacks, we may experience outages, supply shortages, price increases, and other economic disruptions

Reports on cyber attacks targeting Ukrainian infrastructure highlight a mixture of data-wiping viruses and DDoS strikes.

What should I do?

Keep an eye on any reports made by CISA. Have backups of your data readily available and maintain a high awareness across all network spaces. If you maintain remote environments, keep staff informed and enforce a strong zero-trust policy.

If you’ve read anything by me at Bytagig, what’s happening now is the culmination of the things I’ve written about and reported on. While Russia seeks war and military engagement with Ukraine, President Putin will show no restraint when it comes to cyber-attacks.

I really wish I didn’t have to write these words, but these are strange times indeed. I’d like to back to the days of Nigerian prince scam emails.

As always, if you’re concerned for the privacy, safety, and integrity of your business data, reach out to Bytagig.

-Douglas James