And cyber warfare? NATO calls for attention to ‘invisible’ attacks

Not everything is sending troops or launching missiles, the war between Russia Y Ukraine also develops in a plane “invisible”. This was recalled this Thursday 10 by Jens Stoltenberg, general secretary of the NATOwho asked his allies to invest more in the security of cyberspace.

READ ALSO: She was hospitalized in an emergency and when it was discovered what caused the health problem, she could not believe it

“It is a vital part of our collective defense”, he argued during a forum in Rome that preceded his meeting with Giorgia Meloni, Prime Minister of Italy.

The warning is not new.

At the beginning of March, a few days after the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukrainethree types of attacks were documented “initiated on Russian territory or by companies allied with Russia”. However, France 24 recalls that, despite everything pointing to it, it could not be verified that they were ordered by those led by the President Vladimir Putin.

The portal recalls that, one day before the start of the war, an attack was recorded DDoS -” distributed denial of service attack”- to the pages of the “Parliament, the Government, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and other Ukrainian state institutions. In turn, a day later, official Russian pages suffered the same attack”.

By then, the US President Joe Bidenalso called the private ones to close “your digital doors”. The United Kingdom followed the same path and askedincreased cyber security precautions”. The kremlin already stood out as a major threat.

Despite the fact that Russia complained about the accusations, history is against them.

The BBC recalls that, in 2015, the BlackEnergycyber attack that “caused a short-term blackout for 80,000 customers of a utility company in western Ukraine”. The following year, another virtual hit called Industroyer “knocked out power for about an hour at almost a fifth of Kyiv”.

By April of this year, it seemed clear where the attacks were coming from. In fact, microsoft released a report stating that “at least six nation-state actors aligned with Russia launched more than 237 operations against Ukrainewhich were accompanied by activities of espionage and intelligence affecting other member states of the NATOin addition to some disinformation activity”.

The company added that these cyberattacks appeared to be linked to Russian military operations. By that time, of the “40 destructive attacks”, 32% were against “national, local and regional government organizations and another 40% to organizations in the infrastructure sector”. The goal was to affect the performance of the Ukrainian army and economy.

“For example, a Russian actor launched cyberattacks against a major broadcasting company on March 1, the same day as the russian army announced its intention to destroy Ukrainian targets by carrying out a missile attack on a tower of TV in KyivMicrosoft added.

LOOK: Minors on a motorcycle crash into a trailer and are run over: “Why did you let them out!”

more enemies

Earlier this month, microsoft updated his Digital Defense Report. One of the novelties was that 22% of cyberattacks were directed at the information technology sector. Likewise, 17% hit NGOs, 14% the sector educationand 10% to government institutions.

“Although nation-state actors can be technically sophisticated (…) their attacks can often be mitigated with good cyber hygiene”, it was recommended.

Dialogue is also a form of prevention. Stoltenberg maintained that, happily, “cooperation between governments and technology companies has increased significantly”. “Cyberspace shouldn’t be the wild west, free for all, our allies agree“, said.

But it is clear that there is not only one enemy for NATO. In addition to Russia, China it is also shown as a government that should be paid attention to for its “espionage attempts through cyber attacks”.

“According to information presented by Microsoft, between February and March, a Chinese cybercriminal targeted 100 accounts related to an Asian organization that held meetings with the Chinese government. USA”, adds Infobae.

Source: Elcomercio

Ronald Payne

I, Ronald Payne, am a journalist and author who dedicated his life to telling the stories that need to be said. I have over 7 years of experience as a reporter and editor, covering everything from politics to business to crime.