Category: russia

As the United States, along with its allies, imposed sanctions on Russia for waging a war on Ukraine, information is out that cybercriminals operating in the Putin-led nation are finding it hard to make a living.

All these days, cyber crooks were seen duping the public by posting scam-related ads on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. But with the sanctions in place, the technology companies have blocked access to their services to all IP addresses trying to access their services from the Russian federation.

Some hackers were seen sending phishing emails by spoofing reputed bank web portal pages. But their prospective targets are not falling prey to their email scams as most of the service providers, such as Yahoo and Google, have blocked all such efforts at the roots.

Black Mamba a reputed hacking group’s name on the dark web, acting as a mediator to many cyber scams is also facing a lot of trouble in fetching money from previous scams, as most of their money laundering mules have withdrawn support, as soon as Biden pulled out SWIFT banking support to Ruble, the official currency of Russia.

So, even if the hacking groups, such as those spreading ransomware, launch digital attacks, it will become hard for those criminals to mint money from their targets. Even if they take the help of blockchain transactions in cryptocurrency- as every exchange is being tracked by The Photon Research Team, an international cyber arm of professionals working for UK and US governments and assigned to defend the business communities across the world.

Russia issued an official statement that the United States was showing cyber aggression by launching thousands of cyber attacks on the country’s critical infrastructure- mainly those operating in Moscow.

The foreign ministry said that Kyiv’s western sponsors were trying to break into their infrastructure for the past few days. But all their efforts were identified and blocked on time.

And if it continues, then Kremlin has issued a serious warning that it will be forced to indulge in similar tactics leading to serious consequences.

 

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United States Justice Department has accused four Russian government officials for launching cyber attacks on the critical infrastructure of the Joe Biden led nation between 2012 to 2018.

The accused were named in two separate hacking incidents and evidence proved them as guilty in DragonFly cyber attack affecting thousands of computers in about 135 countries.

In a recently opened sealed document of August 2021, the department of justice indicted 3 hackers working for the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) for launching attacks on nuclear power plants, energy production firms and telecom companies across the globe- in between 2012-17.

Names of the accused are: Marat Valeryevich Tyukuv, 39; Mikhail Gavrilov, 42 and Pavel Akulov, 36.

And in a separate incident, the department of justice pronounced a judgment in June 2021 and the statement is now out, as the document was opened recently, for review by White House.

Evgeny Gladskikh, a 36-year-old person working for Russian military, was found guilty for hacking a Schneider Electric Automated Management System operating in an oil refinery to plant a malware named “Triton” capable of conducting espionage and data steal on electric utilities.

Both the cases were opened again to review the extent to which Russian cyber attacks could evolve and emerge, amid warnings by Joe Biden that Putin could attack their country’s digital infrastructure in the next couple of weeks.

Ironically, the United States of America can only indict criminals and pronounce imprisonment on hackers, but cannot extradite them back to their soil from Moscow to implement the court order/s……strange!

 

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A Russian bank tells its customers to stop installing security updates, an Apple employee ends up in hot water, and learn our tips to avoid being virtually kidnapped. All this and much more is discussed in the latest edition of the award-winning "Smashing Security" podcast by computer security veterans Graham Cluley and Carole Theriault, joined this week by Anna Brading.

From the past two days, speculations are rife that Russia could launch a possible cyber attack on the critical infrastructure of various companies, including those operating in the technology sector.

Kremlin reacted to the news in the late hours of Tuesday and rejected the claims made by the President Joe Biden that Putin was preparing to conduct a cyber attack campaign on west to retaliate the western sanctions. 

Dmitry Peskov, the spokesperson, denied the speculations that his nation was going to indulge in state-level banditry and warned that the accusations were false and were those in circulation was disinformation planted by some media agencies funded by west.

Meanwhile, a member from Anonymous Hacking Group claimed that his team of threat actors has hacked 4 of the Russian government websites- Moscow.ru, Analytical Center for the Government of the Russian Federation, and the Ministry of Sport of the Russian Federation, along with Russian Federal Security Service (FSB), a successor to Soviet Union’s KGB.

Shockingly, Anonymous released a set of digital documents that claim Putin is going to cut down forests in Ukraine and will sell them to private firms, after taking control of territories of the Zelenskyy led nation from all sides. The documents leaked on Twitter reveal that the Russian president was disclosing his future intentions to Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and the conversation was recorded by a western hacking group that was always busy spying on Putin’s whereabouts on a digital note.

Note- On March 15th this year, Anonymous claimed to have infiltrated the database of Russian media censorship agency Roskomnadzor Federal Agency to steal about 340,000 files. The siphoned data was then published on a website titled Distributed Denial of Secrets (DDoSecrets) and is now available for sale.

 

The post Moscow denies possible cyber attacks on United States and Banditry rumors appeared first on Cybersecurity Insiders.

News:

The White House has issued its starkest warning that Russia may be planning cyberattacks against critical-sector U.S. companies amid the Ukraine invasion.

[…]

Context: The alert comes after Russia has lobbed a series of digital attacks at the Ukrainian government and critical industry sectors. But there’s been no sign so far of major disruptive hacks against U.S. targets even as the government has imposed increasingly harsh sanctions that have battered the Russian economy.

  • The public alert followed classified briefings government officials conducted last week for more than 100 companies in sectors at the highest risk of Russian hacks, Neuberger said. The briefing was prompted by “preparatory activity” by Russian hackers, she said.
  • U.S. analysts have detected scanning of some critical sectors’ computers by Russian government actors and other preparatory work, one U.S. official told my colleague Ellen Nakashima on the condition of anonymity because of the matter’s sensitivity. But whether that is a signal that there will be a cyberattack on a critical system is not clear, Neuberger said.
  • Neuberger declined to name specific industry sectors under threat but said they’re part of critical infrastructure ­– a government designation that includes industries deemed vital to the economy and national security, including energy, finance, transportation and pipelines.

President Biden’s statement. White House fact sheet. And here’s a video of the extended Q&A with deputy national security adviser Anne Neuberger.

EDITED TO ADD (3/23): Long — three hour — conference call with CISA.