Russian cyber attacks against Australia are most likely to be in the form of ransomware and other forms of extortion, undertaken by criminals motivated by nationalistic fervour and given the green light by their government, warns Australia’s foremost expert.

Alastair MacGibbon, Australia’s former national cyber security adviser and chief strategy officer for CyberCX, said while there was unlikely to be any direct threat to Australian businesses from state-sponsored attacks, those businesses could become “collateral damage” as a result of attacks against infrastructure inside the Ukraine and agencies such as the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation.