Tech Talk: FACTBOX-The cyber war between Ukraine and Russia – Gulf Digital News

Tech Talk: FACTBOX-The cyber war between Ukraine and Russia – Gulf Digital News

Ahead of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Western intelligence agencies warned of potential cyberattacks which could spread elsewhere and cause "spillover" damage on global computer networks.

While there has been little evidence of spillover to date, the cyberwar in Ukraine rages on. The following is an overview of how the conflict has unfolded in cyberspace:

EARLY DAYS

In 2021, groups aligned with Russian security services began laying the groundwork for a military incursion, according to Microsoft.

The company said suspected Russian cyber actors gained access to the networks of several different Ukrainian energy and IT providers in late 2021. Some of these targets were later hit in 2022 with destructive computer viruses that deleted data and disabled computers.

BEFORE THE INVASION

There were a flurry of cyber operations against Ukrainian targets in the weeks ahead of Russia's invasion on Feb. 24.

In January, researchers discovered destructive malware called WhisperGate circulating in Ukraine.

WhisperGate closely mirrored a 2017 Russian cyberattack against Ukraine, known as NotPetya, that similarly destroyed data on thousands of local computer systems.

After WhisperGate's discovery, a spate of distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks briefly knocked Ukrainian banking and government websites offline. The DDoS flood was later attributed to Russia by Britain and the United States.

Then, days before