However, key players in the West’s cyber infrastructure are maintaining that the said nation will without fail launch a cyber attack. If that happens, here are the possible campaigns that the Kremlin may use.
Russia Could Use One of These:
BlackEnergy – targeted critical infrastructure attack
The attack is aimed at key infrastructures. It was used for the first time in 2015 when Ukraine’s electricity grid was disrupted by a cyber-attack called BlackEnergy, which caused a short-term blackout for 80,000 customers of a utility company in western Ukraine.
In 2016, a similar assault took out power for about one-fifth of Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, for about an hour. Speaking of the possibility of such an attack on the West, Marina Krptofil said Russia could absolutely try to execute an attack like this against the West as an illustration of capabilities and to make a statement.
NotPetya
NotPetya was a 2017 cyberattack by Russia against Ukraine that leveraged accounting software to infect computers and ultimately spread elsewhere to cause damage estimated at $10 billion globally, according to the Brookings Institution.
A NotPetya-style attack has not ensued in the current war, and the federal government is urging people to remain vigilant. The Biden administration warned critical infrastructure operators last month to prepare their cyber defenses in case attacks spilled over from Russia’s advance on Ukraine.
Another expert said that these kinds of attacks would cause the greatest opportunity for mass chaos, economic instability, and even loss of life,
Colonial Pipeline
In May 2021, a state of emergency was declared in a number of US states after hackers caused a vital oil pipeline to shut down. The Colonial Pipeline carries 45% of the east coast’s supply of diesel, petrol and jet fuel and the supply led to panic at the pumps.
This attack wasn’t carried out by Russian government hackers, but by the DarkSide ransomware group, which is thought to be based in Russia.The pipeline company admitted to paying criminals $4.4m in hard-to-trace Bitcoin, in order to get computer systems back up and running.
One of the big fears experts have about Russian cyber-capabilities is that the Kremlin may instruct cyber-crime groups to co-ordinate attacks on US targets, to maximise disruption.
