Cyber Attacks on Ukraine: Not What You Think

pcmag.com:

In the modern world, it makes sense that cyber warfare would coordinate with more traditional “kinetic” warfare. The cyber team knocks out the enemy’s communications just before the boots-on-the-ground team launches an attack, say. However, that’s not what’s happening in Ukraine, according to a research report from Kaspersky’s experts. The near-continuous stream of cyberattacks arrive, for the most part, completely uncoupled from physical attacks, and the quality of the war-fighting code varies wildly.

This report comes from Kaspersky’s Global Research and Analysis Team (GReAT) team. Yes, the same Kaspersky that was recently deemed an “unacceptable risk to the national security of the United States,” banned by Germany’s Federal Office for Information Security, and even dropped from the bug bounty program run by one-time partner HackerOne.

We at PCMag have found it necessary to pull Kaspersky products from our “Best of” roundups, though we still evaluate and report on their capabilities. So why shouldn’t we assume this research report is pure disinformation?

The thing is, the researchers on the GReAT team(Opens in a new window) do their work all over the world. Picking a few at random, I found Sweden, Germany, Australia, and Argentina. Many, perhaps most, of them have worked at other security companies, from Dr. Solomon to McAfee to Symantec. I’ve met some of them personally, and attended their illuminating briefings at Black Hat and other security conferences. Yes, some are clearly Russian nationals. Some are based in Russia. But overall, it’s an international effort, and this group’s research has been well-respected among security experts for many years.

The full report on cyber activities in Ukraine(Opens in a new