The IT incident response manager admitted that Russia needs to defend against waves of cyberattacks at an information security forum. A rare statement, not without interest.
Russian cyber defense is under pressure and this time it’s Moscow admitting it.Nikolay Murashov, deputy director of the National Computer Incident Coordination Center, said Russia is experiencing “ a cybercampaign, on an unprecedented scale “, during a forum on information security, named Infoforum, which is held this July 6 in Sochi. The country’s head of hack detections said, ” that on average, a government agency responsible for detecting, thwarting and neutralizing hacks recorded more than 200 attacks in a day. »
In accordance with Kremlin propaganda, he only evokes a context of special military operation to justify this situation and not an invasion of the country.Nikolay Murashov adds that “ cyberattacks are mainly aimed at disrupting IT infrastructures and gaining illicit access to IT systems of organizations and companies in various fields “. These statements were relayed by the national news agency, Tass.
Russian officials never speaking publicly without interest,Nikolay Murashov is essentially trying to give Russia a victim position in front of an audience of officials. Indeed, it is rare for Moscow to admit to being attacked, even in its cyberspace, and when propaganda outlets do so, it is usually to convince the population that they are under threat from Ukraine, the West, etc. . The hacking of Russian internet operators or the disturbances on the alcohol sales registration platform were not entitled to any official comment, for example.
Hackers from each side go head-to-head
In fact, Russian cyberspace is well under pressure. Ukraine has formed a computer army of volunteers, made up of several hundred thousand hackers, responsible for harassing targets designated by the General Staff in kyiv on a daily basis. In addition, the United States admitted that it also carried out cyberattacks against Russia, without giving details of these operations.
For its part, Russia has its brigade of volunteer hackers, fewer in number than the Ukrainians, and above all responsible for carrying out denial of service attacks to disrupt a site.
Nevertheless, the Kremlin mainly relies on hacker groups linked to the intelligence services. The latter have never stopped attacking Ukraine in cyberspace and have embarked on cyber espionage campaigns against several European countries as well as the United States, according to a Microsoft report. Obviously, this will not be discussed during the forum being held this week in Sochi.
