In a recent article by the Wall Street Journal, U.S. prosecutors charged six Russian intelligence officers who are accused of engaging in the most destructive cyber attacks of recent years. Notable attacks include operations that knocked out Ukraine’s energy grid, exposed emails from the French president’s party and damaged systems all over the world in the extremely costly 2017 NotPetya ransomware attack.
The NotPetya attack is described by security analysts as the most destructive cyber attack in US history. It combined ransomware and wiper software that destroyed data and invaded corporate networks mainly through a corrupted software update from a small firm in Ukraine. The attack crashed many systems world-wide and altered data on disk that made recovering downed computer systems difficult.
The hacking unit within Russia's military intelligence unit is called GRU, and has been previously linked by U.S. authorities to the cyber interference operations during the 2016 election. The alleged activity from 2015 to 2019, reflect how Moscow has become increasingly aggressive in cyber attacks to achieve its geopolitical aims.
The defendants are charged with several counts including conspiracy, computer hacking, wire fraud and aggravated identity theft. “No country has weaponized its cyber capabilities as maliciously or irresponsibly as Russia, wantonly causing unprecedented damage to pursue small tactical advantages and to satisfy fits of spite,” said Assistant Attorney General for National Security John C. Demers.
It's important for your organization to be vigilant of these types of calculated attacks. New-school security awareness training can ensure your users could be able to spot the common red flags.
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