The UK government’s cyber defense agency warned on Wednesday of a threat to critical Western infrastructure. This threat comes from hackers who sympathize with Russia, which has started a war against Ukraine.
Russian-linked “hacktivists” have so far conducted mostly harmless online campaigns, damaging or taking down well-known public websites. However, some of these groups are looking to do more damage, according to a warning from Britain’s National Cyber ​​Security Center (NCSC), part of an intelligence agency called the UK Government Communications Center (GCHQ).
“Some (hackers) have expressed a desire to have a more damaging and disruptive impact on Western critical national infrastructure, including in the UK,†the NCSC said in a press release at a two-day conference. hosted by NCSC and GCHQ in Belfast. “We expect these groups to look for opportunities to create such an impact, especially if the systems are poorly protected.”
Although these groups are ideologically motivated and their interests coincide with the interests of the Russian state, they are “not under formal state control, which makes them less predictable,†the warning says.
A successful cyberattack on critical national infrastructure, including power grids or water supplies, can be highly disruptive and cause significant real-world damage.
The NCSC warning said such attacks, which typically require a very high level of technical skill and resources to carry out, could “with little likelihood” be carried out by “hacktivist” groups “without outside help”. However, attacks “may become more effective over time”, and such assistance may already be in place.
Among dozens of highly classified US intelligence documents that have surfaced online in recent weeks, one of the most secret documents warned that a pro-Russian hacker group called Zarya had infiltrated Canada’s gas infrastructure. .
According to this “top secret” document, a copy of which was seen by Reuters, the group offered screenshots to Russian FSB officers as proof that they were able to “pressurize the valve, turn off the alarm and trigger an emergency stop of an unspecified vehicle”. gas distribution station.”
Reuters was unable to verify the authenticity of this document. A number of countries, including the UK, questioned the authenticity of some of the documents, saying they were “inaccurate”.
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