The war in Ukraine is also a war in cyberspace, as this new report shows.
The invasion of Ukraine by Russia is not just a war confined to the borders of Eastern Europe, kyiv being strongly supported by NATO. In return, the countries of the Atlantic alliance are also targeted by Russia, as shown by a report by Google’s Threat Analysis Group (TAG).
The war is also happening on the Internet
The images of buildings and cities destroyed by the bombardments marked the public. But the war that has been going on for a year now on Ukrainian territory is also a digital war, with the help of state-sponsored hackers and hacking groups. Russia has stepped up its efforts in this area, according to Google’s TAG, which has been working on the issue in conjunction with cybersecurity firm Mandiant.
Thus, the number of cyberattacks originating from Russia exploded last year. If the report explains that Ukraine is obviously the priority target of these attacks, as evidenced by a new wave of malware launched by the Sandworm group, the West has for its part experienced an unprecedented increase in intensity of these offensives. In 2022, Kiev saw in this context Russian attacks increase by 250% compared to 2020, while NATO countries had to undergo a 300% increase in these attacks over the same period.
War has its consequences in cyberspace
The pattern of these assaults had two stages, according to the same report. While the attacks on Ukraine were particularly violent during the first four months, with in particular a high level of coordination during the initial offensive in February 2022, they then saw their pace slow down.
Above all, and this is one of the interesting findings of the published note, the war led to a restructuring of the cybercriminal ecosystem in Eastern Europe. Pirate groups have indeed split on the basis of different political allegiances, and some have even lost important operators. What make their future activities more difficult to predict, according to the TAG. And this, while the aggressions against the countries of the Old Continent could intensify.
Source : Google
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