US DHS Warns of Cyber Attack By Russia

The U.S. DHS  has issued a warning that Russia may launch cyberattacks against the U.S. government and critical infrastructure operators ahead of a potential invasion of Ukraine.

 We assess that Russia would consider initiating a cyber-attack against the Homeland if it perceived a U.S. or NATO response to a possible Russian invasion of Ukraine threatened its long-term national security,

DHS Statement

The attacks could range from low-level denials-of-service to destructive attacks targeting critical infrastructure, almost certainly considers cyber-attacks an acceptable option to respond to adversaries because it cannot respond with the economic and diplomatic options often preferred by other countries.

Ukraine was targeted by a massive cyberattack earlier this month that knocked out key government websites. The country blamed Russia for the attack. The attack further, described it as using destructive malware designed to render computers unusable.

It’s widely presumed that Russia will invade Ukraine in the coming weeks after amassing troops at the country’s border since the middle of last year. The U.S. and other countries have already begun to evacuate citizens from the country ahead of the potential invasion.

Nation-state attacks are happening by the tens of thousands and occurring against organizations with no direct government affiliation. Everyone is apparently a ‘fair target’ these days. It is really a change in the state of nation-state attacks and cyberwarfare.

As the threat environment continues to change, proper diligence is expected, and hopefully mandated, to ensure all cyber defensive tools and techniques are employed to protect your most precious data assets. Continuous intelligence, monitoring, and dialogue with critical partners and suppliers should be ongoing to ensure all is ready in the event recovery needs or and additional support is available in the event something was to occur.