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Cyber Firms Warn on Suspected Russian Plan To Attack Ukraine (reuters.com)
Jim Finkle, reporting for Reuters: Cisco Systems on Wednesday warned that hackers have infected at least 500,000 routers and storage devices in dozens of countries with highly sophisticated malicious software, possibly in preparation for another massive cyber attack on Ukraine. Cisco's Talos cyber intelligence unit said it has high confidence that the Russian government is behind the campaign, dubbed VPNFilter, because the hacking software shares code with malware used in previous cyber attacks that the U.S. government has attributed to Moscow. Cisco said the malware could be used for espionage, to interfere with internet communications or launch destructive attacks on Ukraine, which has previously blamed Russia for massive hacks that took out parts of its energy grid and shuttered factories. Head of Ukraine's cyber police said on Wednesday that the agency is aware of new large malware campaign, and that it is working to protect Ukraine against possible new cyber threat.
So just how much damage was done in those "massive" previous attacks, and how long did it take to restore the power grid and factories? Was it worse than squirrels or a hurricane?
Strange things are afoot at the Circle-K.
At what point can we just sever as much internet traffic out of Russia to the world? I know I'm massively oversimplifying that effort, but should there not be some sort of 'death penalty' against countries engaging in cyber warfare? China and some other smaller nations would likely keep connections which would make it hard to filter between Russian and Chinese communications, but any directly from Russia could be subject to either massive slowdown or complete blocking.
If Russia is trying to convince Ukraine to ally with Russia instead of the European Union, they are going about it in exactly the wrong way.
In English, the translation is "Department of cyber police." Serhiy Demedyuk is its head.
In the USA, Douglas Maughan is Director, National Cyber Security Division of the Office of Cyber Security & Communications. Try saying that fast five times.
Ya think?
Actually, name one country that they aren't attacking.
According to all the people named Ivan that post on Slashdot; Russia is a model democracy, a shining beacon of friendship in the world, and would never consider violating another country's rights on stability. Russia certainly are not cyber attacking any country.
Wait for the correct timezone to hit rushhour Slashdot traffic.
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
How massive? So just how much damage is done when you're lying on the ground and someone kicks you in the face? How long did it take to recover from that? Was it worse than the other one kicking your crotch?
If not, let's imply that it's ok to be kicked in the crotch.
The concern is that there are lots of political reasons to lie, and absent hard evidence, they can turn "uses off-the-shelf-malware and a tor exit node" into "high confidence." Basically, if we can't see the evidence ourselves, we should give an assessment from anybody with major government contracts zero confidence until we see direct evidence.
This is my signature. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
See also the full Cisco Talos post, New VPNFilter malware targets at least 500K networking devices worldwide, which has all of the technical details, including all indicators of compromise (IOCs).
Use my userscript to add story images to Slashdot. There's no going back.
According to all the people named Ivan that post on Slashdot; Russia is a model democracy, a shining beacon of friendship in the world, and would never consider violating another country's rights on stability. Russia certainly are not cyber attacking any country.
Wait for the correct timezone to hit rushhour Slashdot traffic.
I wish I had known years ago that all I had to do to become Russian was to disagree with someone on the internet.
I haven't seen any evidence that they are attacking San Marino.
Hi Ivan!
"That's the way to do it" - Punch