ALERT SUMMARY: Several government agencies warn of Russian cyberattacks to Americans as the Ukrainian invasion continues and the Russian economy begins to feel the sanctions against it. The main threats are US critical infrastructure that would be felt by everyone as we saw in the recent attack on the Colonial Pipeline making portions of the east coast wait for hours to fill their car’s gas tanks. Not only will regular users suffer indirectly from these larger attacks, but more direct consumer attacks may follow. All this as we are seeing from the Russian cyberattack playbook.
The FBI, CISA, DHS and other government agencies are warning of potential threats showing an uptick in online scanning and penetration testing activities that typically imply a precursor to a cyberattack. Government and businesses won't be the the only ones impacted, consumers will also be impacted both indirect and direct attacks. Cyberattacks against companies and the government have an indirect impact to consumers as we saw with the Colonial Pipeline attack that caused gas shortages at the pump. Now, newer direct attacks against consumers may be coming, if not already here.
The Russian government-sanctioned attacks against Ukraine may be an important sign of the types of attacks we may be seeing here in the U.S. Ukraine’s main telecom provider suffered a major cyberattack that recently stopped most internet services forcing the Ukrainians to limit internet services to regular users preserving what’s left of their internet services for critical communication. This was not the first time the internet services were attacked. The initial attack occurred when Russia first invaded Ukraine leaving the country with extremely limited internet access at a most critical moment for the people trying to escape and connect with loved ones.
The U.S. has already seen attacks to our infrastructure from cyber criminals, like the Colonial Pipeline that caused massive lines at the gas pump for days, and new attacks on our supply chain systems, internet services, and other important computer systems could be coming. Traditional cyberattacks against consumers like ransomware is on the rise as well, new types of attacks in the form of stealth malware that quietly infects computers could then be used in a synchronized attack against our own infrastructure systems.
Other attacks from within could be from regular software installed on our devices. The FCC recently put out an alert on the use of Kaspersky Security software used by millions to protect their device against malware. Ironically, the FCC warned that the company posed an “unacceptable risk to the national security” of the country.
As technology becomes easy to install and use, it enables people to pick and choose services from all over the cloud without due diligence introducing a new kind of security issue that doesn't have an easy solution.
Next Steps - For additional details and Step-By Step Instructions on how to protect and respond to this Alert, follow the link below.
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