(PresidentialWire.com)- After what has been called a failure of the last four months, Russia’s war in Ukraine is entering its fifth month. The invasion has not been as orderly and quick as Putin would have expected as Ukraine successfully defends itself. The Russians are reportedly using their entire arsenal of resources to focus their efforts on what might be considered a victory.
But defeat is not in Russia’s endgame as they recently admitted that they are putting their resources toward Kyiv and central Ukraine. Beyond physical warfare and boots on the ground, Russia has now implemented cyberattacks on Ukraine’s infrastructure in an attempt to disrupt the and degrade Ukraine’s capabilities, as well as its international allies.
The British government issued a warning that cyberattacks are being orchestrated by pro-Russian groups. The hostile action is consistent with the Russian government’s blacklist of British defense officials, journalists, and officials.
“A series of website takedowns, or DDOS attacks over the last few months against European partners have sought to disable and disrupt government communications. Good cyber resilience meant the attacks had limited impact,” the British Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office wrote on Twitter.
The office added a default answer that the UK is working with allied countries in the European Union and NATO to “call out and counter threats in cyberspace and build the resilience and capabilities of our partners.”
The war initially began when a cyberattack was released by Russians using the wiper malware called “AcidRain,” which is against Viasat, a communications satellite firm that the U.S. has been using to work with Ukraine.
The cyberweapon targeted Viasat modems and routers, permanently disabling them and erasing their data. The goal of Russian hackers was to disrupt the Ukrainian military’s communications during what was reportedly a crucial stage of the war.
AcidRain did not stop there as it became uncontrollable and began infecting other modems and routers elsewhere in Europe, prompting the United States to respond by issuing a “condemnation” of Russia’s actions. In the months leading up to the war the Department of State said, Ukraine encountered a series of cyber operations against them, including “website defacements, distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, and cyber attacks to delete data from computers belonging to government and private entities.”
