Security News
Roskomnadzor, Russia's telecommunications watchdog, asked Google to stop advertising campaigns spreading misinformation about Russia's invasion of Ukraine on YouTube videos. "Roskomnadzor sent a letter to Google LLC with a demand to immediately stop disseminating false information of a political nature about the special operation of the Russian Armed Forces in Ukraine on the territory of Russia," the internet watchdog explained.
The Ukrainian government attributed the activities to a threat actor tracked as UNC1151, a Minsk-based group whose "Members are officers of the Ministry of Defence of the Republic of Belarus." In a follow-up update, the agency said the nation-state group also targets its own citizens, while simultaneously setting its sights on Russian entities -. The development follows a barrage of data wiper and distributed-denial-of-service attacks against Ukrainian government agencies, even as various hacking groups and ransomware syndicates are capitalizing on the chaos to take sides and further their activities.
As big tech companies from the West swiftly and happily comply with new rules that prohibit interactions with Russia, Chinese companies will soon feel pressure to do likewise - and counter-pressure to resist such calls. In early February, Russia and China re-affirmed their relationship as having "No limits" and essentially declared they are best friends forever.
Microsoft is decrying what it calls the "Tragic, unlawful and unjustified invasion of Ukraine" by Russia, and vowed to continue protecting the country from cyberattacks and state-sponsored disinformation campaigns. The software giant added it will support humanitarian efforts as Ukrainians try to fend off an invading Russian army and as hundreds of thousands flee Ukraine into such neighbors as Poland, Romania, and Moldova.
The Russia-Ukraine cyber warzone has split the Conti ransomware gang into warring factions, leading to a Ukrainian member spilling 60,000 of the group's internal chat messages online. On Twitter a message from a Conti member saying that "This is a friendly heads-up that the Conti gang has just lost all their sht."
The worst security looks much the same as the best. By way of justifying the invasion, he made a speech saying that Ukraine is not a country, that the West is an evil empire, and that Russia's security concerns are paramount.
An angry member of the Conti ransomware operation has leaked over 60,000 private messages after the gang sided with Russia over the invasion of Ukraine. AdvIntel CEO Vitali Kremez, who has been tracking the Conti/TrickBot operation over the last couple of years, also confirmed to BleepingComputer that the leaked messages are valid and were taken from a log server for the Jabber communication system used by the ransomware gang.
Hacker crews are picking sides as the Russian invasion into Ukraine continues, issuing bans and threats for supporters of the opposite side. Earlier today, the Conti ransomware group stated their "Full support of Russian government" and threatened with cyberattacks against anyone launching attacks against Russia.
What sort of attacks should U.S. businesses expect? Kanry said we don't need to look back very far to see an example of the potential havoc state-sponsored cyberattacks can inflict: The Colonial Pipeline attack.
The White House has denied reports that President Biden has been presented with an arsenal of ways to launch massive cyberattacks against Russia - attacks designed to disrupt the country's ability to sustain its military operations in Ukraine. Russia's military forces have been deployed in a ?full-scale attack against Ukraine.