Many Russian Cyberattacks Failed in First Months of Ukraine War, Study Says

A new study of how Russia used its cyber capabilities in the first months of the Washington-Ukraine war contains many surprises. Moscow launched more cyberattacks than were possible at the time to intensify the aggression, but more than two-thirds failed, reflecting poor physical battlefield performance. increase.

But research, Published by Microsoft on WednesdayMany in a disinformation campaign to establish a war story in Russia’s favor, including the allegation that President Vladimir Putin’s government secretly produces biological weapons in Ukraine. Suggested that he was more successful than he had expected.

This report is the latest effort by many groups, including US intelligence agencies, to understand the interaction of brutal physical warfare with parallel and often coordinated struggles in cyberspace.this Ukraine has shown that it is ready to dodge cyber attacks after many years of enduring cyber attacks. This is prepared, at least in part, to have established warning systems from private companies such as Microsoft and Google, and to move many of Ukraine’s most important systems to servers outside Ukraine. This is because of it.

In Ukraine, the United States, Poland and the Baltic states, only 29% of attacks compromised targeted networks, according to reports of Russian cyberattacks and disinformation campaigns. However, it shows an ongoing more successful effort to rule the information war, and Russia has accused Washington and Kieu of launching an intensifying conflict now in the east and south of Ukraine.

War was the first full-scale battle to use traditional and cyberweapons side by side, and competition continues to explore unprecedented dynamics between the two. So far, most of its dynamics have not been developed as expected.

Initially, analysts and government officials were hit by the absence of Russia’s devastating attacks on Ukraine’s power grid and communications systems. In April, President Biden’s national cyber director, Chris Swingris, said the “problem now” is why Russia “did not play a very important role in cyber, at least for NATO and the United States.” rice field. He thought the Russians were heading for a swift victory in February, but speculated that they were “distracted” when the war effort hit obstacles.

According to a Microsoft report, Russia attempted a large-scale cyberattack on February 23, the day before the physical intrusion. The attack, using malware called FoxBlade, was an attempt to use “wiper” software to wipe out data on government networks. At about the same time, Russia attacked the Viasat satellite communications network, hoping to cripple Ukrainian troops.

“we Brad Smith, President of Microsoft, said:

“It was a formidable, focused, and even ferocious series of attacks, an attack that began with some form of wiper software, an attack that was actually coordinated from various parts of the Russian government,” he said on Wednesday. Added in Ronald’s forum. Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute in Washington.

However, many of the attacks were either thwarted or had sufficient redundancy built into the Ukrainian network, so the effort did little damage. As a result, Smith said the attacks were underreported.

In many cases, Russia coordinated the use of cyberweapons with traditional attacks. This includes shutting down a nuclear power plant’s computer network and then moving it to the military to take over. Microsoft officials refused to identify which plant Smith was referring to.

While much of Russia’s cyber activity is focused on Ukraine, Microsoft has detected 128 network intrusions in 42 countries. Microsoft concluded that of the 29% of successful Russian attacks that broke into the network, only one-quarter of them had their data stolen.

Other than Ukraine, Russia is concentrating its attacks on two ambitious members of the United States, Poland, and NATO, Sweden and Finland. Other alliance members were also targeted, especially as they began to supply more weapons to Ukraine. However, these violations are limited to surveillance. This shows that Moscow is trying to avoid directly involving NATO countries in combat through cyber attacks, just as Moscow is refraining from physically attacking NATO countries.

However, Microsoft, other tech companies, and government officials say Russia has combined these infiltration attempts with a wide range of efforts to promote it around the world.

Microsoft tracked growth in Russian propaganda consumption in the United States in the first few weeks of this year. It peaked at 82% just before the invasion of Ukraine on February 24, with monthly page views ranging from 60 to 80 million. That number is comparable to the pageviews of the largest traditional media site in the United States, Microsoft said.

One example quoted by Mr Smith was that Russian propaganda in Russia urged citizens to vaccinate, while the English message spread the word against vaccination.

Microsoft has also tracked Russia’s increase in propaganda in Canada weeks before truck drivers protesting the vaccine order shut down Ottawa, and in New Zealand public health measures aimed at fighting a pandemic. Tracked it before protesting.

“It’s not the case of consumption following the news, not even the amplification effort following the news,” Smith said. “But it’s not an exaggeration to say that it’s likely that it’s trying to influence the production of the news itself for the day, not just in the case of this amplification that precedes the news.”

Senator Angus King, independent of Maine and a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said that while private companies can track Russia’s efforts to disseminate disinformation in the United States, US intelligence agencies are within the US network. He said it was restricted by a law prohibiting peering in the United States.

“I think there is a gap and I think the Russians are aware of it, which allowed them to take advantage of the openings in our system,” King said at the Reagan Institute. Told.

Under this year’s defense policy bill, which is being considered by Congress, the National Security Agency and its military cousin, the U.S. Cyber ​​Command, will discuss the security of elections, including the impact of Russia and other foreign powers on Americans. You need to report to Congress annually. ..

“After all, the best defense is for our own people to be better consumers of information,” King said. “We have to do a better job of educating people to be better consumers of information. I call it digital literacy. And grades 4 and 5. Children need to be taught how to distinguish between fake and real websites. “