As we have noticed, the bombings and attacks that cause physical damage to people and buildings in Ukraine occupy the main headlines, it is understandable that the confrontation between troops and the destruction of bombs are the most prominent events in the events of the war; however this war between Russia and Ukraine has transcended beyond the physical battlefield, it has also developed in cyberspace.
Now wars are also fought in cyberspace. Source: pixabay.com.
You may have read that Anonymous, a well-known group of cyber attackers, from the beginning of the conflict declared to be against the actions of the Russian government and to have declared a cyberwar on Russia, and since then they have been executing various attacks with varying degrees of success. Among the occurrences that in this context were attributed to this group was to have hacked the official website of the Russian government and the Ministry of Defense, they are also responsible for hacking hundreds of media websites, as well as news channels.
The Anonymous group declares cyberwar on Russia. Source: pixabay.com.
But it should be noted that Anonymous is not a well-structured organization, and its real capabilities seem to be limited since they have not generated any major attacks, other than those aimed at circumventing censorship of news sites.
However, there have been various attacks on different entities whose authors have not been revealed and who could be the same protagonists of the armed conflict. For example, on February 23, the company Microsoft reported having detected a cleaner software never registered before, which was capable of erasing all data from computers connected to a network, and which apparently targeted government offices and financial entities. in Ukraine, three hours after detecting the virus, they managed to update the systems to block it.
Other attacks could come from the same protagonists. Source: Wikimedia.org.
Other types of registered attacks have been those of distributed denial of services (DDoS), which basically consists of saturating web pages with junk information from fake users, making it difficult for a real user to access services since access is denied. access, thus leaving the servers and other systems of public and private institutions out of service. This type of attack was received a day before the invasion the virtual sites of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and other state institutions of Ukraine.
Another attack, although more destructive than the previous one, was detected on February 24 (a few hours after the invasion began) by the Computer Security firm of Eset Latin America, aimed at Ukrainian government entities, in which a Wiper was used to called IsaacWiper, whose purpose is to destroy any system by corrupting its data.
In this regard, Viktor Zhora, head of Ukraine's responsible cybersecurity agency, told the media that for the first time Ukraine was waging a hybrid war, and that cyber defenses are trying to repel all attacks.
For his part, the Minister of Digital Affairs of Ukraine, Mykhailo Fedorov, two days after the Russian military operation began, called for the creation of a digital army, and offered a list of tasks to digital talents from around the world who wanted to lend a hand.
Minister of Ukraine requested to create a digital army. Source: pixabay.com.
While attacks from both sides of the war have so far been aimed at sabotaging governments' digital infrastructure or influencing public opinion, both countries have the means to escalate the conflict in cyberspace, which could happen. if different groups, from both sides, engage in more targeted attacks on more important systems of their adversary. This is not an encouraging scenario, since the escalation of violence in cyberspace could spread and extend its consequences to third parties.
For example, attacks could be directed at nations or civilian organizations in other countries that provide military or humanitarian aid to those affected by the conflict. Not to mention that other groups could take advantage of the moment to use in favor the possible leak of sensitive data of people or companies, or that some virus produced to attack a specific system later spreads throughout the world. And without neglecting the fact that scams that use the situation in Ukraine as a decoy to appropriate the resources of people willing to help could increase.
In short, cyber attacks are a powerful weapon, with the potential to paralyze a nation's government infrastructure and demoralize its citizens by affecting public services and telecommunications, making cyberspace already a battlefield for modern wars.
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