How The Russia-Ukraine Conflict Is Changing Global Cyber Security

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The hacktivist group Anonymous warned Nestle S.A. NSRGY and all foreign companies that refuse to pull their business operations from Russia that they will be the next target for #OpRussia.

Anonymous has given the companies a 48-hour ultimatum to leave the country or face cyber attacks. 

“We call on all companies that continue to operate in Russia by paying taxes to the budget of the Kremlin’s criminal regime: Pull out of Russia!'' says a tweet on one of the group’s prominent accounts. “We give you 48 hours to reflect and withdraw from Russia or else you will be under our target!”

Anonymous has been involved in a series of cyber-attacks aimed at corporations and government agencies including Bank of America Corp. BAC, Alphabet Inc.’s GOOG Google owned YouTube, the Australian government, the Tunisian government and many others.

The Russia-Ukraine conflict has escalated cyber tension not just between the two nations but in western countries as well. It is reported that an army of hackers from within and outside Ukraine has been targeting Russia with a series of attacks aimed at penetrating through Russian censorship with news about the conflict.

The Ukrainian government has also hired private cybersecurity experts to fortify the country’s critical industry sectors, according Victor Zhora, a top cyber security specialist in Ukraine. Cybersecurity experts from other nations are also coming through to help Ukraine protect its valuable assets and investigate the origin of the attacks targeting organizations in the country.

As the cyber tension between Russia and Ukraine escalates, experts have warned that similar attacks could spill over to organizations, corporations and government agencies in the U.S. 

Just a few weeks ago, the former director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), Chris Krebs, and Derek Vadala, chief risk officer at cybersecurity firm BitSight, advised agencies and firms to tighten their systems against vulnerabilities in readiness for any attack.

In a move that could be linked to the advice from Krebs and Vadala, President Joe Biden signed a cybersecurity law demanding critical industrial sectors, such as finance and energy, to report to CISA within three days of being hacked.

“In the face of significant cybersecurity threats to our country — including potential retaliatory cyberattacks from Russia for our support in Ukraine — we must ensure our nation is prepared to defend our most essential networks,” Homeland Security Committee Chairman Gary Peters said.

Cybersecurity Industry Looks to Help

Companies such as the cybersecurity visualization, analytics and automation firm, Visium Technologies Inc. VISM, say they have the necessary tools to help organizations and government agencies during this time of uncertainty. The company reports that its main product, TruContext, allows a user to visualize an overview of an enterprise’s cybersecurity stance, helping cyber analysts with key cybersecurity information during and after an attack.

Visium says TruContext has the ability to detect vulnerabilities and exploits using the ATT&CK framework and the prototype tool CyGraph, products from The MITRE Corp., a security firm responsible for developing the U.S. Army’s cybersecurity defense. The platform has been integrated with Splunk, Tenable and Datadog to use their visualization capabilities to pinpoint the exact origin of an attack using geolocation. 

As cyber-attacks and warfare become more of an unfortunate but regular reality, the cybersecurity industry could grow and see many new players along with increasing value for its existing incumbents.

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Photo by Jefferson Santos on Unsplash