Australian businesses warned to brace for cyber attacks as countries take ‘opportunity’

Australians have been warned to brace for cyber attacks as Russia hits back at Western nations, and others seek to use the conflict as a distraction.

Australian businesses have been warned to take extra precautions against cyber attacks in the aftermath of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Defence Minister Peter Dutton said analysts were concerned about attacks, whether they were directed at Australia or “collateral damage” from other broader attacks.

“We should be realistic about that threat, businesses should take extra protections,” Mr Dutton told ABC’s Radio National.

He advised people to visit the Australian Signals Directorate website and the Australian Cyber Security Centre website to get the latest information.

“We’re a society that relies on our telecommunications – that’s how we live our lives – and we need to make sure that we’ve got the latest patches installed, password protection etc, those basic things should be undertaken,” he said.

Mr Dutton also noted some might seek to take advantage of the distraction caused by the Ukraine conflict.

“Quite often in these circumstances, countries will act under the cover of this sort of circumstance that we’re seeing in the Ukraine, and we just hope and pray obviously, that it’s over as quickly as possible,” he said.

Australia, like many other countries around the world, has introduced sanctions against Russia and it’s believed Moscow could retaliate by launching cyberattacks against targets in Europe and the United States.

Germany said on Thursday that it was bolstering its cyber defences to ward off Russia-based attacks, while the European Union is prepared to activate an EU cyber response team to help Ukraine face the threat.

“If you’re suddenly having 190,000 troops attack Ukraine, chances are … that the cyberattack will not be a single piece of malware,” Mark Warner, chair of the US Senate Intelligence Committee, told the Axios news site.

“If you unleash not one, but five, or 10, or 50, or 1000 at Ukraine, the chances of that staying within the Ukrainian geographic border is quite small,” he said.

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US Senator Mark Warner has warned of possible cyber attacks. Picture: Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images/AFP

“It could spread to America, could spread to the UK, but the more likely effect will be spreading to adjacent geographic territory” such as Poland.

Governor Kathy Hochul of New York announced on Sunday reinforced cyber security efforts in the face of the “current geopolitical uncertainty,” saying her state was home to leading targets in finance, energy and transportation sectors.

Washington has already accused criminals with alleged ties to the Russian government of carrying out vast ransomware attacks against critical infrastructure, such as the May 2021 attack of the Colonial Pipeline that shut down oil shipment for days.

But IT experts say they have learned to recognise many of the tactics employed by Russia-linked hackers, which could help limit the threat as governments and companies increase their surveillance.

“We have a long experience with these actors. We know a lot about them and that means that we can actually develop defences that counteract their methods,” said John Hultquist, vice president for intelligence analysis at the cyber security firm Mandiant.

His company has set up a dedicated task force during the Ukraine crisis, which “has already proven to be a catalyst for additional aggressive cyber activity that will likely increase as the situation deteriorates,” according to its website.

A screen grab taken from the official Ukranian Privatbank application called ‘Privat24’, the first bank of the country, shows a cyberattack on the application on February 15, 2022. Picture: AFP

‘Patriotic hackers’

On Wednesday, just hours before Russia sent troops into Ukraine, the websites of several Ukrainian banks and government agencies were disabled by so-called denial of service (DDoS) attacks that Kyiv claimed were of Russian origin.

Cyber security firm ESET said on Wednesday that malware capable of erasing data had been found on hundreds of computers in Ukraine, an attack that appears to have been planned two months ago.

The Ukraine government had already seen dozens of official sites hacked last month in attacks it blamed on Russia, despite Moscow’s denial.

“Russia is very good at mixing the private actors and state actors,” said Serge Droz, head of security at Protonmail, the encrypted email provider.

He said that Russian President Vladimir Putin has acknowledged the existence of “patriotic” hackers, and Moscow is widely thought to have orchestrated the massive cyberattack that crippled Ukraine’s electricity network in December 2015.

“It didn’t create huge physical damage, but it created a lot of psychological damage – it’s like disinformation and manipulating the public opinion,” Mr Droz said.

On Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin unleashed a full-scale ground invasion and air assault on Ukrainian cities, forcing civilians to shelter on metro systems, with 100,000 people displaced.

Across Ukraine, at least 137 “heroes” were killed after the first day of fighting, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said, calling up conscripts and reservists nationwide to fight in a general mobilisation.

Ukraine said Russian forces had also seized the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, an area still heavily contaminated with radioactive material after a devastating 1986 accident, prompting the IAEA nuclear watchdog to call for “restraint”.

Western intelligence has said that Russia is seeking to mass “overwhelming force” around the Ukrainian capital and that Moscow has established “complete air superiority” over Ukraine.

Elsewhere, Russian ground forces moved into Ukraine from the north, south and east, forcing many Ukrainians to flee their homes as the sound of bombing reverberated.

Moscow’s defence ministry said its forces had “successfully completed” their objectives for the day, earlier claiming to have destroyed over 70 Ukrainian military targets, including 11 airfields.

Weeks of diplomacy failed to deter Mr Putin, who massed over 150,000 troops on Ukraine’s borders in what the West said was Europe’s biggest military build-up since World War II.

– With AFP