LONDON (Parliament Politics Magazine): Because of concerns about new Russian cyber attacks related to escalating tensions with Ukraine, the UK’s cyber security department has recommended UK organisations to assess their cyber defences.
The public-facing branch of the espionage agency GCHQ recommended everyone to study new guidance titled “Actions to take when the cyber threat is heightened” that was recently published on its website.
“While we are unaware of any specific cyber threats to UK organisations in relation to events in Ukraine,” said the director of operations at the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), Paul Chichester. The situation was being closely monitored and it is crucial for the organisations to follow the guidance to ensure their resilience.
He said that the organisation has seen a trend of hostile Russian behaviour in cyberspace over the last few years. The events in Ukraine last week had all the characteristics of previous Russian action that they’d seen.
On the 14th of January, Ukraine was hit by a “massive cyber attack” that targeted 70 government websites, according to Ukrainian officials.
At the time, Oleksiy Danilov, Ukraine’s president’s senior security adviser, told Sky News that he was 99.9% certain Russia was behind the attack.
The assertion has been refuted by the Kremlin.
Officials from the NCSC are working “immediately” to assist the Ukrainian authorities in investigating the incident and determining who was responsible.
Russia amassed over 100,000 troops and armaments near Ukraine’s borders as the cyber offensive developed.
Fears of a second Russian invasion of its neighbour have risen in Western capitals, eight years after President Vladimir Putin invaded Crimea and backed rebels in the east.
Whilst the government was not assuming culpability for the recent cyber events in Ukraine, the NCSC was investigating them with urgency, said the NCSC in a statement on Friday.
These incidents follow a pattern of Russian behaviour that has been witnessed in past cases, he added.
That would include a global cyber attack in 2017 that cost businesses all over the world millions of pounds.
Previously, the UK accused Russian military intelligence of carrying out the NotPetya cyber-attack on Ukraine’s government IT systems.
The malware then expanded to 64 additional nations, including the United Kingdom.
The new NCSC warning appears to be intended to guarantee that British businesses and other organisations are well prepared in the event that another cyber strike against Ukraine spreads across the internet.
According to the cyber centre, the “advice urges organisations to take decisive steps that lower the chance of being a victim of an attack.”
